Catch up with the news!

By Joseph Erunke

THE Nigerian Air Force, NAF,  yesterday,  organised a one-day sensitisation workshop for journalists covering defence beat on the requisite skills and knowledge on the application of air power in the counter-insurgency operations.

The Workshop, organised by the Directorate of Public Relations and Information, DOPRI, of NAF, Headquarters, Abuja was aimed at better equipping defence correspondents with requisite skills and updated knowledge on the application of air power.

According to the organisers, the Workshop was also intended to acquaint defence correspondents with various air power terminologies in a bid to enhance professionalism in the reportage of NAF events; thereby, projecting the NAF in a more accurate and balanced manner.

Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, while declaring the Workshop open, said information management in today’s world was critical to national development and the way it was processed could affect national security positively or negatively.

Abubakar, represented by the Chief of Administration, NAF Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Ibrahim Yahaya noted that there was a growing need for journalists to understand the technicalities involved in air operations as the nation strives to maintain peace in the country.

He said: “A Defence Correspondent must, therefore, understand and indeed know the terminologies associated with his beat to enable him to report events professionally.

“”Just as it is often said that a man cannot give what he does not have, so also will a Defence Correspondent with inadequate knowledge about the military not be able to analyse NAF operations effectively.” Abubakar said.

He, however, enjoined the defence correspondents to make good use of the opportunity offered by the workshop to acquire the required knowledge about the NAF.

In his presentation titled: “Military-Media Relations, the Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), Air Vice Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya charged the media to be more professional in their reportage while also remaining conscious of the need to uphold integrity.