The International Press Centre (IPC) said it is making a case for bulletproof vests for journalists covering the 2023 elections.
The Executive Director of the IPC Lanre Arogundade said during the presentation of the outcomes of the organisation’s analysis of trends in reportage of the 2023 elections on Tuesday in Abuja.
The IPC chief said journalists are victims of election violence, adding that 250 journalists were attacked during the 2019 polls.
“I don’t know whether that would be a violation of the Police Act and I don’t know if it is allowed. But you see, we need to have this conversation with them,” he said.
“One thing is that as journalists, we must be ethical, professional and another thing is for a conducive environment to be provided for us”.
“And that’s why I talked about the need for political parties and government to come together and ensure that we are protected as safety matters”.
He called for security to be attached to journalists during the coverage of this year’s exercise.
He also appealed to security agencies to protect media professionals so that there won’t be a repeat of the 2019 incident.