Panelists at the 2024 Safety of Journalists Symposium on Saturday called for the protection and improved welfare of journalists to encourage them carry out their tasks of contributing to the development of their society.

The panelists, including safety officials and media professionals, made the call at a session to commemorate the 2024 UNESCO International Day to End Impunity for Crime Against Journalists.

The event, organised by the Media Centre for Promotion of Safety Awareness, was to arouse public consciousness on the need for journalists’ safety.

It was held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ikeja and with the theme ‘Safety of Journalists in Crises/Emergencies and Role of Risk Assessment in Safety.’

Executive Director, Safety Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation, Jamiu Badmos, described safety as a conscious effort geared toward the elimination of circumstances that could lead to human casualty and property damage.

Mr Badmos decried the inhuman workplaces and situations journalists worked in and asked media owners and authorities to collaborate to institute a safety regulatory framework to ensure journalists’ safety and welfare.

He said, “Most times, newsmen are exposed to war zones, inferno and other crisis-ridden areas because of the duty. Therefore, no measure should be spared in ensuring that they are protected and good welfare packages, including life insurance policy, are accorded them, for the benefit of their dependents in the case of death.’’

A media practitioner, Silver Okereke, urged journalists to maintain a joint bank account with their spouses to enable dependents access to the savings.

Mr Okereke, who was among the journalists kidnapped in Abia State in 2010, narrated his ordeal with kidnappers in the forest for eight days, said that journalists should approach every day carefully, to return home safely.

He noted that his days with the kidnappers made him give his wife access to his account and subscribed to an insurance policy that could safeguard the future of his children in case of any eventuality that could make him not return.

The convener of the programme, Dr Chineye Amaechi, said that the plight of journalists, especially those reporting conflicts, should be of concern to the authorities.

Mr Amaechi, a former journalist with the Champion newspaper, decried what amount paid to journalists as salary, calling on media owners to improve the remuneration.

November 2 is set aside to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crime Against Journalists.

The commemoration began in 2003 following the kidnap and subsequent murder of two French journalists in Mali.

(NAN)