Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole, the President, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), said on Saturday in Lagos said that the association would soon begin ``massive'' training programmes for female journalists in the country.
Omowole, who made this known during the association’s monthly congress, said that this was in fulfilment of her campaign promises.
She said that a gender-based training for 30 Journalists in Zone `B' comprising Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states would hold on June 11.
She further said that the training programmes for the Lagos NAWOJ would hold monthly for the next three years and that it would include international trainings.
``For all your congresses, you will always get one training,`` she said.
The president said that 480 Journalists would be trained in the 15 ECOWAS member countries and Mauritania with the pilot programme scheduled to hold in Bamako, Mali, from July 2 to July 13, adding that female Journalists in the country would benefit from it.
She further said that the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) would on July 2, launch ‘Women Reporting Women’, a three-year gender sensitive reporting project for women Journalists from Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
She explained that the project which ends in December 2016, would target 32 women Journalists, to be trained as trainers on gender sensitive reporting.
Earlier, Miss Nkechi Naeche, Editor, Businesstoday online, criticised some Nigerian Journalists who engaged in publishing negative reports about the country.
Naeche gave the example of Rwandan genocide which, she noted was fuelled by the reports of some Journalists who took sides.
``We should practice developmental journalism,`` she stressed.
Similarly, Mrs Grace Alegba of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) criticised the current trend of partisanship among some Journalists instead of adhering to objective reportage.
``Some of us have become members of various political parties and instead of being objective in our reports, we project party ideologies but we owe the public a duty of accurate reporting,`` she said.
In a remark, the NUJ Lagos Council Chairman, Mr Deji Elumoye, commended the Lagos NAWOJ for hosting a successful delegates conference in May.
``If women are able to hold a successful election like this, the Independent National Electoral Commission should borrow a leaf from them for a successful conduct of the 2015 election,'' he said.