January 16, 2023: The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, in collaboration with the Canadian Funds For Local Initiative (CFLI)), is prepared to train 47 journalists in a two-day workshop on ‘’Holistic Security Safety’’ ahead of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria. 

This training is set to hold from 17th-18th January 2023 with 47 journalists handpicked from over 700 submitted applications cut across media organizations in Nigeria. 

This training is part of the Centre’s ‘Promoting, Protecting, and Preserving Freedom of Expression and Democratic Values in Nigeria project’ aimed at enabling journalists to gain the vital skills to protect themselves as they work in threatening situations and digitally volatile environments. 

The workshop is set to be a space for journalists to discuss and learn how to deal with the impact of the job of covering elections. 

The Deputy Manager of the CJID’s Media Freedom project, Mrs Stephanie Adams-Douglas, said: ‘Now more than ever, journalists and activists in Nigeria are exposed to cyber threats and hostile physical environments as they do their daily work. As we approach the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the safety and security of journalists have remained one of the burning national issues being discussed. Therefore, it is important that journalists are well-equipped with knowledge and tools to safeguard themselves ahead of the elections. 

Subsequently, after the holistic safety workshop for Nigerian journalists, the CJID will host a Media Executive Stakeholder Consultative Forum. It would be a consultative forum to analyse trends in press freedom, journalists’ safety, and policies that affect the media in Nigeria. 

This forum will be graced by media executives who will develop a national policy for safeguarding press freedom and the safety of journalists in Nigeria. 

The dialogue will focus on developing strategies to safeguard the now-threatened independence of the press while ensuring that the civic space remains safe for journalists to do the accountability reporting required for democracy to thrive. The discussion will also include ways to seek reforms of oppressive media laws through engagements with the judiciary and legislature.

The meeting aims to develop strategic advocacy actions that will mitigate the various threats to the safety of journalists and the general violation of freedom of expression, press freedom, and the shrinking of the civic space in Nigeria.