Journalists from Bungoma County have been asked to be champions of population and development by reporting on population issues.
Speaking on Wednesday during a Capacity Building meeting for Journalists at Kenya Industrial Estate Hall, the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD)’s Deputy Director, Charles Oisebe challenged the media to be a voice of development.
Oisebe asked the media to pass population and development issues to citizens through their tools of communication, saying they reach a wide audience.
He called on them to verify any data they receive before they disseminate it to the audience since they are a major partner with NCPD.
He asked them to report on key areas that affect the population in areas of education, health, governance and economics, saying that this will enable the recipients of the data and information to make informed decisions.
Speaking during the same meeting, a Public Relations Officer with NCPD, Stephen Ingabo called on journalists to focus on development stories instead of focusing on politics.
Ingabo asked journalists to change the tradition of saying that the audiences prefer politics hence filling up all
newspapers and any form of media with political stories at the expense of development stories.
The journalists, on their side, said that they send so many development stories which are killed by the editors hence they are demoralized, saying after all the media is in business thus they prefer what will sell.
By Maureen Imbayi
