Mrs. Ifeyinwa Omowole, the National President of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, (NAWOJ), , on Friday stressed the need for journalists to give more coverage to gender related issues.
Omowole, while declaring open a one-day workshop on “Gender Sensitive Reporting for Women Journalists” in Lagos, said that gender issues were usually misunderstood.
She said that gender issues were usually developmental and charged journalists to give it a priority in their reports.
The NAWOJ president said that gender issues cut across all spheres of life, including, education, health, the economy and other areas and should, therefore, be given more attention.
“Gender is not only about women, but our environment and how it affects and shapes us.’’
She commended Mrs. Victoria Ogbole, former NAWOJ Zone `B’ President for honouring the association’s invitation as a resource person at the workshop.
She also thanked her for accepting to impact trainings she had done in other countries to members of the association.
Omowole said that she had joined the former zonal president to conduct trainings in 16 states of the country.
She, however, said that funding had been a major issue affecting training programmes.
The president said the South-West region was largely covered in most of the trainings in 2016, adding that the entire country would be covered in 2017.
She thanked the Norwegian Union of Journalists for collaborating with NAWOJ to make the programme a reality.
“In our journey, wherever we see the members of the Norwegian Union of Journalists, we should know that they had helped to train us, “she said.
Responding, Mrs Victoria Ogbole said that the NAWOJ president had been proactive in passing on knowledge to female journalists in the nation.
She charged journalists to take advantage of various training opportunities available online to improve their global participations.
“There is gender in everything you cover,” she said.
Ogbole while delivering a lecture on, “Mainstreaming Gender Issues into News Reporting”, said that gender was socially construed, saying the roles in relationships between men and women were created by the society.
She said that in some cultures in the country, men pound yam, but in others, the reverse is the case as women were expected to pound yam.
She decried the various issues of sexual harassment against young boys and girls who were exposed to street life either in the IDP camps or as almajiris across the country.
While condemning the rising cases of rape, she urged journalists to visit and expose issues of under-aged girls being used for prostitution in the IDP camps and in various parts of the country.
Ogbole stressed the need to increase participation of women in politics by encouraging female journalists to report their activities.
She commended the Lagos State Government for being the only state in the federation that gave women more opportunities to serve in public offices and urged other states to emulate it. (NAN)