By Martin Paul
Abuja
The Nigerian Press Council (NPC) in collaboration with the International Press Centre (IPC) has jointly released the report of election coverage for March 2015 and rated the media performance low.
The two bodies in a statement yesterday based its facts on the report of their monitoring of the reportage of 2015 elections by selected national and regional newspapers, online media and social media platforms for the month of March 2015.
Describing the exercise as crucial, the bodies said “the monitored newspapers, commendably and deservedly, put campaign issues at the apex of their reporting for the month. This also represented a willingness to assist the voters to make informed choices at the polls.
“It was, however, observed that the percentage of coverage devoted to voter education was rather low at 13per cent for the national newspapers and 8.4per cent for the regional newspapers, especially being the election month when there were renewed agitations over the voting process and the use of card readers.
NPC and IPC said: “While it was expected that the concerned 12 national newspapers, seven regional newspapers, four online media and three social media platforms would, animatedly, cover the electioneering process, the underlining hope was that they would do so with the desired compliance with professional and ethical standards”, the organisation said.