The Catholic Diocese of Lafia on Monday, April 22, trained 100 journalists, others on how to report the activities of the Church in order to avoid misleading the public.
The participants were drown from Catholic Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CAMPAN), Announcers from various parishes, Catholic Voice Crew, (Catholic owned newspaper in the state) and Catholic Youths Organisation of Nigeria (CYON).
Speaking at the opening of the one-day workshop in Lafia, Rev. Fr. Godwin Apesuu, Acting Director of Communication in the diocese said the training was aimed at equipping the participants with the requisite knowledge about the teachings of the church.
He explained that the theme of the workshop, ‘Coverage and Reportage of the Church and the Engagement of Social Media Platforms’ was to help participants know more about the Catholic Church and report same to the public through the conventional and social media platforms.
“It is important that the Catholic Church train journalists from time to time on the philosophy and activities of the church to enable them tell the stories from an informed perspective.
“Journalists, announcers and Correspondents of the Catholic Voice Newspaper are the image makers of the Church and when they are properly trained they tell our stories better,” he said.
“This is the third time we are training the participants since I assumed the responsibility of the directorate and this time around we decided to include CYON members because they are the future of the church,” he added.
He further said that the church brought Abah Anthony of Catholic Television, Dephine Asu of Vatican Radio who were vast in ecclesiastical reporting as resource persons in order to educate others on how best to report the church.
On his part, Abah Anthony, resource person at the event said journalism in the church is good and journalists most be knowledgeable about principle of practice of the Church to be able to report it properly.
He said that the church is a place that unite the people irrespective of their backgrounds hence, journalists should not stereotype anybody on the basis of their tribes in their report.
He also advised them to always participate in church activities and seek for clarification when not clear about anything to avoid misleading the public.
On her part, Dephine Asu of Vatican Radio said journalists should turn their hubbies for social media to carriers and promote the activities of the Church in the various social media platforms.
She explained that the social media has a lot of positive impacts that the church need to take advantage of in order to evangelize to billions of youths who formed various communities in the social media.
On his part, Valentine Joshua, Chairman of CAMPAN called on the participants to use their various platforms to promote the church because of the misinformation being paddled to the public.
He added that Artificial Intelligence (AI) had come to stay, as such the church must take advantage of it to enhance evangelism.
The highlights of the workshop included questions and answers from participants. (NAN).