Journalists must set agenda for 2019 elections —Joan Mower, VOA director

Ms Joan Mower, the Director of Development and International Media Training at the Voice of America (VOA), was a resource person at a two-day training workshop organised by the United States Consulate General in Lagos for journalists on election reporting held in Lagos. KUNLE ODEREMI engaged her in an interaction on a number of issues, including politics, democracy and the media industry. Some excerpts: 

WHY is your country so keen on what goes on in Nigeria, especially on matters relating to elections?

Nigeria is the largest country in Africa. It’s the most populous country, with nearly 200 million people. It is the largest democracy in Africa, for sure and as such, the United States is very interested in seeing that this country holds a peaceful and fair election because we want to see democracy continues in your vital country. The United States, obviously, has other interests; we have relationships; we have trade; we have a relationship on the front and also American companies see Nigeria as major market in the future as the country grows up and continues to develop.

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The restoration of civil rule in Nigeria about 19 years ago has not been devoid of some challenges no doubt, leading to a preponderance of views within and outside the shore of the country. So, how does your country perceive the democratic experiment in Nigeria in the past 19 years?

I think basically, there have been ups and downs, of course. But, basically we see your country as doing well in democracy. There are problems; there are problems in any country. But in 2015, for all intents and purposes, you had a very peaceful election; you had a candidate who stepped down after he lost. That is not always the case in Africa where many of the ‘big men’ have opted to stay in power; to change the constitution; to not accede to the wishes of the people. So, we see democracy as working in Nigeria, a very complex, multi-ethnic large country.

What do you intend through this programme?

We really want to do is first, the United States understands the vital role the journalists play in any election, whether it is an election in the United States, Nigeria or the United Kingdom. The journalists are the messengers to the people. They are the group that provides information to the mass of the people in the country. So, the first lesson is that journalists are vital to a functioning democracy, and what we hope, by this programme, is to work with journalists in Nigeria to underscore the basic tenets of a good journalism: fair, fact-based and unbiased; no hate speech and try to reinforce the ideas that the journalists have such a crucial role and that they need to do their job fairly, adequately and properly.

Does it suggest that some of these values you mentioned are not visible in the practice of journalism in Nigeria, especially in the last 16 or more of democracy in the country?

Not really and I think that your country has a vibrant press; you have a free press for decades, far longer than 19 years. Nigeria has a vital and vibrant enthusiastic media sector. What we would like to see though with any journalist with a refresher course, we will like to underscore the important role that the press plays and also look at some lessons learnt from the United States and from other countries; to see what some of the best practices of democracies are when practising journalism.

You would have heard, read and seen a lot concerning the practice of journalism in this part of the world. So, judging from your understanding of the Nigerian press so far, what do you think are the major challenges of journalists in Nigeria?

One of the challenges is the failure to clearly differentiate between political advertising and news. I think the Nigerian media houses could do a better job of drawing a parallel between your advertising and sales department with sale access to the media houses from the journalist who should be independent and fair-minded. So, that is one of the issues I see. Secondly, the issue of revenue generation; all media houses need to make money, and Nigerian media organisations need to look forward to how they are going to be increasing revenues which is the ace in the United States. I think Nigerian journalists tend to tilt to the elite in your country. So, I think they need to be involved more engagements with the local populations on the issues that really affect them. And fourthly, I will emphasise the need for more investigative reporting, particularly into money is spent in your country, which is what one of the natural resources.

In the course of the workshop, you were concerned about the need for synergy between the media and the ordinary people in the country. What are those specific areas of the interface you would suggest between the media and the locals?

One of the ways that Nigerian journalists can improve on coverage is to focus on issues. The issues in Nigeria don’t necessarily deal with a meeting between the president and the vice-president; that’s not an issue. An issue is what has the government done to create jobs; how many new jobs have been created in your country since (President Muhammadu) Buhari was elected? What is the state of the education system? What are the statistics and figures on education and how many people have truly been educated? On the healthcare delivery, how is healthcare being delivered in this country? Has healthcare improved since Buhari was elected, or has it not improved? Finally, I think that the issue of transparency and how government money is spent is going to be vital for the future of Nigeria.

What do you think are the other forms of collaboration that the Nigerian media can have with the United States towards assisting the financially distressed media industry in Nigeria?

I don’t think the US is in the business of supporting the media particularly. We are in the business of putting out different business models; we can work with sales forces; we can look at ways of generating revenues; they need to be money making operations. There are ways to do that and I think that capitalising on political advertising is a good strategy but not journalism now. Your journalist should be completely separated from the revenue generation; there shouldn’t be any brown envelop; any bribes; any taking payments. There should be a robust advertising section, which should sell political advertisements.

The Voice of America (VOA) is a model in global broadcasting? As the chief training officer, what do you consider as the staying power of the organisation for decades?

VOA is a state-owned broadcaster we do not have to raise money. So, that is a gift. We do not have advertising or payment because we are paid for by the government. I think that the reason the VOA continues to have a strong reputation is that we have a very strict Code of conduct and Code of ethics that requires we scrutinise the copy that we put out; how the copy is sourced; we have two sources; we use accurate figures; we double-check and fact-check information that we put out and these are the heart of journalism and the future of journalism in Nigeria.