Martins Ifijeh
The Federal Ministry of Health has organised a three-day workshop for health promotion officers, members of the press and private stakeholders to develop guideline for health reporting.
The guideline, according to the Director, Media and Public Relations, Mrs Boade Akinola, when completed, would be distributed to editors and journalists reporting health activities across the country.
“It would help the journalists reporting health issues to have in-depth knowledge about health sector and report issues accurately.”
The Workshop took place at Kaduna, with participants drawn from Federal Ministry of Health, State Ministries of Health, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, FHI 360, NURHI, FMOI and Centre for Communication Programme Nigeria.
In her remarks at the opening ceremony, the Head, Health Promotion Division, FMOH, Mrs. Patricia Freeman said the objective of the workshop was to formulate standard guideline for health reporters.
She said the guideline, would involve advocacy kits that will contain detailed information about health programme, project or particular disease.
“The guideline is to ensure accurate reporting of health activities by the health journalists.”
In his presentation, Mr. David Oyeleke, Health Promotion Division, FMOH, described media as catalyst in promoting health activities in the society.
He said that the primary goal of the workshop was to draft a document that would serve as official guideline in reporting health all over the country.
Oyeleke, however noted that credible spokesperson and expert must be available to the press with genuine fact and figures to help ensure accurate health information.
Mr. Oyeleke said and I quote, “This is critical, especially during a crisis/disaster/epidemic when there is pressure for both health and non-health reporters to cover an incident.â€
