Emergency Digest to Reward ‘Humanitarian Journalism’ at SAEMA 2021

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The forthcoming Security and Emergency Management Awards (SAEMA 2021) event, billed to hold on December 18 at NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja, will have as a staple Humanitarian Journalism Award.

The award which was instituted in 2019 is an initiative of Emergency Digest, a sister publication of PRNigeria.

The annual event is hosted in partnership with the Centre for Crisis Communication and CISLAC to recognise the immeasurable and invaluable contribution to the security, peace and development of Nigeria by the military, security, intelligence and response agencies, their management and personnel and other institutions and individuals.

The originator of SAEMA, Yushau A. Shuaib, said the Awards celebrate the best of the bests in security and response agencies in Nigeria.

He said the recurrence of both man-made and natural disasters has over time precipitated insecurity and humanitarian consequences in the country, adding these tragic occurrences have placed the activities and operations of agencies and departments saddled with the responsibility of managing security and emergencies in the front burner.

He said the decision to introduce Humanitarian Journalism Award into the mix centred on the realisation that humanitarian journalism is the production of factual accounts about crises and issues that affect human welfare by providing early emergency warnings, raising awareness and on support and monitoring the treatment of citizens.

He said a humanitarian journalist provides information as essential as the benefit of water, food, medicine or shelter for humanity and goes beyond the routine of traditional reporting of disaster and crises by providing accurate, timely and reliable Information that helps people in and from humanitarian crises.

“It is unfortunate that high-profile crises take up the chunk of majority of news coverage, leaving others marginalized and hidden. Most crisis reporting cover political actors rather than the plight of affected suffering citizens,” Shuaib said.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, will deliver the keynote paper on ‘Supporting Legal Response and Criminal Justice to Counter-Terrorism’.

The awards is categorised into Institutional award categories which include: Public Information, Crime Prevention, Diligent Investigation, Community Service, Civil Military Relations and Emergency Management.

Individual award categories are Security- Humanitarian Journalist, Law Enforcement Officer, Crisis Communicator, Gallantry, Security Officer of the Year and Military Officer of the Year.