The North West Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Malam Musa Ilallah, said media practitioners’ inaction on disaster alerts was partly responsible for occurrence of emergencies in the country.

Illalah, who stated this in Kaduna at a one-day workshop titled : ‘Role of the Media in Disaster Management,’ expressed regrets that the Nigerian media took more interest in reporting disaster happenings rather than highlighting on preventive approaches.

He said “you will agree with me that the action or inaction of the media can sometimes either worsen an existing disaster situation or generate a fresh ground of disaster”.

He said people tend to believe journalists on disaster happenings because they are significant in the disaster management matrix in area of risk reduction, mitigation, preparedness and response.

The Zonal Coordinator maintained that reporting disaster is a very serious business that must be done with utmost high sense of responsibility

While urging journalists to shun parochial sentiments and biases, Illalah advised journalists to always report the truth on any disaster, its impact relief arrangements and coping mechanism.

He warned them to desist from escalating the disaster in any form.

Also speaking, Alhaji Qauramata Ismail, Senior Lecturer, Mass Communication Department, Kaduna Polytechnic, said the workshop was timely because most media houses were always reacting to the disasters rather than working to prevent same.

“Much as economic survival is essential, the Media must not loose sight of its watchdog role for the society,’’ he said.