The need for media houses and journalists to pay more attention to Crime Reporting cannot be over-emphasised in view of its significance to increasing readership of newspapers.
The Managing Editor/Editor in Chief of FrontPage, an online newspaper, Mr. Sakibu Olokojobi, made this assertion on Tuesday in Abuja.
Olokojobi spoke as one of the facilitators at a workshop on City and Crime Reporting organised by Daily Trust Foundation with the support of MacArthur Foundation, where he handled two sessions – City & Crime Reporting: Sources, Strategies & Ethics and Dos and Don’ts in Writing Crime Stories.
According to him, paying more attention to crime reporting would improve its quality and save media houses from possible litigations among other problems.
One of the ways of paying attention to crime reporting, he stated, was adhering to the rules guiding it.
He emphasised the need for media houses to embark on the training and retraining of their reporters in the area of crime reporting to be able to get the best.
In one of the sessions, the FrontPage boss focused on what makes crime stories special; the connection between crime and the city; how to develop and maintain sources and the techniques of crime reporting among others.
Olokojobi applauded Daily Trust Foundation for the workshop, describing it as a major contribution to the continuous development of journalism in Nigeria.
Speaking during one of the sessions – Safety Measures in Covering Dangerous Assignments – which he handled, the Programme Director of Daily Trust Foundation, Dr. Theophilus Abbah, gave details of how journalists could ensure their safety in the course of reporting crime.
He said being security conscious and knowing how to go about ensuring safety on the beat was very important.
Husseini Yahaya, Editor, City & Crime Section of Daily Trust newspaper spoke on the importance of the workshop.
According to him, it would go a long way in improving the quality of reports of the participants.
