Commissioner for Information in Abia State, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, has stressed the need for journalists in the state and across the nation to always project the State positively in order to attract more investors to the state.
Chief Okiyi Kalu who made the call during a workshop on online information management organized by Abia State Ministry of Information for members of the Correspondence Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Umuahia, advised journalists to focus more on developmental journalism to help fast track the achievement of the developmental needs of the State.
The Information boss reminded journalists that they are agents of development, pointing out that no State can make meaningful progress when it is projected negatively to the outside world.
He revealed that many positive changes are taking place in the state through the efforts of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, adding that the Governor was working tirelessly to proffer lasting solutions to the problems facing the state and commended members of the Correspondence Chapel of the NUJ for being partners in progress with the government.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Elder (Pharm) Ifeanyi Agbai, said the workshop would be organized regularly to equip journalists with the knowledge of ICT and online media management.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Correspondence Chapel of NUJ Umuahia, Comrade Emma Ugwu, described the workshop as a unique empowerment programme aimed at equipping journalists with necessary skills and opportunities that abound in online platforms and thanked Chief Okiyi Kalu for organizing the workshop as well as the online media experts for coming to share knowledge with them.
In their lectures, online Media experts, Mr Jeff Kelechi Eme and Mr Emenike Iroegbu, disclosed that online social media has assumed a critical place in information dissemination and called for convergence between the traditional and the new media to create synergy in information management. They also called on online media practitioners and bloggers to regulate their practices to ensure ethical reporting of events.
Correspondent, Chukwuma Emele reports that the workshop also featured an interactive session on social media management.
