The African Director, Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) for reporters without borders, Marc Aboflan, has told journalists that over 1,500 media outfits including media development organisations, advertisement outlets and other media affiliates including regulator bodies have joined the global network.
He made this known at a one-day training workshop held in Abuja for media managers and owners on November 16, 2023 held at Johnwood Hotel to familiarise media publishers and managers in Nigeria with RsF’s Journalism Trust Initiative as one of the counter-malformation methods.
In an interview with online newspaper, he said Journalists struggle a lot to show their credibility and quality of work they do everyday, hence , the workshop to intimate select media organisations and online platforms on the need to be part of the new approach in spreading the good news and accessing grants.
He said: “We developed this framework to show how they work, and how they are structured. In most African countries, we have lots o challenges.
“I cm say that over 1,500 media outfits including media development organisations, advertisement outlets and other media affiliates including regulator bodies have joined this global network.
“There’s need to bring identifiable credibility to the media, because we want the media to be certified, according to best practices, good standards, good journalism.
“Trust, revenue from advertisement, increase of search engine optimisation are great advantages and aim of JTI.
“We came to have a discussion so we can access and profer market driven solutions to newsrooms across Africa to drive the course of the best newsrooms practice.
“The certification which has a cost has been provided grants for the purpose of the certification as part of the workshop. We as African journalists should use the evolving media tools like AI to move Africa forward in every sense,” he added.
High point of the workshop was an interactive session where some media managers and representatives spoke about the challenges being faced by their various organisations and how JTI can come in to help access grant when they are certified.
Aboflan promised to do everything in his power to assist Nigeria media outlets and journalists to access any grant that is open to the media.
