Ms Fadare's scholarship to train at the BBC in the United Kingdom will be funded by Nigeria's office of UN Women
PREMIUM TIMES senior multimedia reporter and gender advocate, Titilope Fadare, on Saturday emerged as Nigeria's best women reporter at a well-attended award ceremony in Lagos.
Ms Fadare, who beat four other nominees in the journalist category, received a tablet, certificate, award plaque, and scholarship for training at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) office in the United Kingdom.
The scholarship will be funded by Nigeria's office of UN Women, an organ of the United Nations.
The Country Representative of the UN Women in Nigeria, Beatrice Eyong, announced the scholarship while presenting the award to Ms Fadare.
Ms Eyong said Ms Fadare would have an opportunity to go to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to develop her capacity in women reporting.
"This category is special to us, we will support your training at the BBC in the UK, and you will come back to do more," Ms Eyong said.
Meanwhile, Ene Oshaba of BluePrint Newspaper was announced as the runner-up for the category.
About award
Organised by Women Radio 91.7 fm in partnership with the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and sponsored by UN Women and Canadian Government, ReportHer Awards acknowledges gender-balanced reportage and celebrates media organisations and journalists who give prime time/space to women as their male counterparts.
Speaking on the award, one of the judges, who is the Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade, said they received a total of 109 entries, noting that the award looks at the social responsibility and impact of gender stories that have been reported.
He said for the selection, they had some assessment perimeters, which included the essence at which women were used as sources for reports, and the 50-50 representation of men and women in the stories.
Mr Arogundade added that they looked at "the extent to which the story uses data, cite sources and looked at presentation and effectiveness and the extent to which media institutions that submitted their entries, and journalists meet the professional standards portraying women."
Other judges are Chinonso Clark, CEO, Lead for Good Africa; Hamzat Lawal, CEO of Connected Development; and Ene Ede- Publisher, The Woman Today Newspaper.
For the radio category, the Voice of Nigeria (VON) won, while Blueprint Newspaper won the print category. Arise News TV won the Television category, while Tech Cabal won the digital category.
Why the award?
According to the CEO of Women Radio, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, the award is aimed at recognising the collective and deliberate efforts of the media at changing female narratives, altering stereotypes, and closing gender imbalances, "as Nigeria is experiencing more visibility and reportage of women."
The organisers said though Nigeria still has a male-dominated media industry, with the majority of media owners, decision-makers and editors being men, "we are witnessing an increase in media visibility on female-centric issues."
Mrs Okewale-Sonaiya commended the Nigerian media for what she described as a deliberate and intentional commitment to gender-sensitive reporting.
"With your dedication to sharing narrative and demanding accountability, you help make Nigeria a wonderful place for women," she said.
The Director of the MacArthur Foundation's Nigeria office in Abuja, Kole Shettima, noted that the foundation is committed to gender inclusion, media and journalism in Nigeria, adding that they support not less than 60 media organisations in Nigeria that promote gender inclusivity.
Also, the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Balarabe Ilelah, said the NBC is at the forefront of protecting the dignity of women as provided in various places in the Nigeria broadcasting code, particularly section 310.
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"We believe women must be empowered to be part of all decisions and developmental processes of our dear nation," he said.
"For the awardees, this should boost you to do more, give more, and contribute more. There is still more to do in the area of affirmative action, forced labour, problems that are almost everywhere in the country, rape, girl child abuse and many more."
Call for 50-50 in Tinubu's cabinet
In her speech, the Chief Executive Officer of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka, called on President Bola Tinubu to observe the 50-50 gender balance in appointing his cabinet members.
Mrs Alaka said doing that would put Nigeria on the global map as a gender-sensitive nation.
Also, in her remarks, the Founding Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, suggested that the media organisations should have a 50-50 gender reporting agenda.
