Lekan Otufofodunrin writes on how journalists can maximise opportunities to participate in international media conferences even when they can’t be there physicially.
Physically, I did not attend the 2015 UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebration held in Latvia but I was part of the event in a number of ways.
First, I was asked to nominate a young journalist to participate in the conference by the Information Officer of the UN office in Lagos, Seyi Soremekun. I nominated David Lawal, our Hard Working and Innovative Online Reporter at The Nation Newspaper.
Soremekun said the offer to nominate a participant was in appreciation of The Nation’s media support for the UN work through regular publication of its press statements online and in the print edition.
At The Nation, we do our best to regularly publish UN press statements on the various humanitarian activities of its agencies in Nigeria and neigbouring counties, without expecting any appreciation.
Most non-profit making organisations are not ungrateful of the support journalists give them. When opportunities, like participating in international conferences like the one on Latvia, come up they don’t forget their ‘friends’.
At the conference, Lawal lived up to expectations and headed the Social media team of the Youth Newsroom which published a daily paper, Avviso, and online coverage for the conference.
Ahead of the day, I checked the UNESCO website for information on the programmes to mark the World Press Freedom Day. I noted the weblink and social media platforms to follow reports from the conference and send comments.
Thanks to new media technologies, if you can’t attend an international conference in person, you can online and that is what I did.
Though I was not in Latvia, I followed the updates on presentations and discussions at the conference. Through Twitter and the hashtags for the event, I was able to tweet on my perspective on the topics discussed and re-tweet interesting posts.
I tweeted the statement by the Nigeria Guild of Editors on the World Press Freedom Day and links to published opinion and stories on the Day in Nigerian newspapers.
Apart from having some of my tweets re-tweeted by the conference official Tweeter handle, one was published in the conference paper with my Tweeter handle and photograph.
My published tweet was: There is need for better reporting based on the principles of truth, fairness and objectivity #WPFD2015@Youth_Newsroom @davidblawal
It’s not too late to check www.youth-newsroom.com,@Youth_Newsroom and #WPFD2015 for what transpired at the Latvia conference.
Lawal gave me two copies of the Conference paper, Avviso which I have read and learnt a lot from the contributions of various speakers.
Other Nigerian journalists who attended the event included, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Edeatan Ojo, National President, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs Anthonia Ifeyinwa Omowole, Executive Editor of Premium Times, Musikilu Mojeed and Ify Aronu from SplashFM Ibadan.
To keep abreast of trends in the profession, always be on the lookout for international conferences you can attend. If you don’t get invited or can’t pay your way to the conference, do not miss out totally on the proceedings; Go online.
You can also set a Google alert (www.google.com/alert) for an international event you are interested in reporting with a keyword that could likely be used in reports on the Internet.
Lawal was able to report the World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos, Switzerland without being there with the help of Google alert.
Photos: Lawal (third from Left) and Aronu ( first right) and other participants at the conference
