- Mojeed Tasks Nigerian Journalists on Continuous Learning, Rigorous Reporting
- …Urges Academy To Focus On Practical Newsroom Needs
By Our Reporter
THE DAILY Trust Foundation (DTF) has launched a Journalism Academy aimed at strengthening the professional, investigative, digital and ethical capacities of journalists in Nigeria, with the Foundation identifying gaps in specialised reporting, digital skills, verification and understanding of key sectors as major challenges facing the media industry.
DTF Chairman, Malam Bilya Bala, who spoke at the unveiling of the Academy on Tuesday in Abuja said the initiative was conceived from lessons learnt through the Foundation’s implementation of multi-year media development grants supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
According to him, the interventions revealed persistent weaknesses within the media ecosystem, including inadequate knowledge of investigative reporting methodologies, insufficient understanding of the sectors and beats covered by journalists, limited collaboration among professionals in an increasingly convergent media environment, the spread of misinformation and information disorder, and difficulties experienced by some veteran journalists in adapting to the digital environment.
Bala said the challenges had made it necessary to establish a more comprehensive and sustainable learning platform capable of providing journalists with continuous professional development.
“The establishment of the DTF Journalism Academy marks a significant milestone in our efforts to contribute to the growth of a knowledgeable, skilled, and ethically grounded media profession,” he said.
The Chairman said the Foundation had already implemented a range of capacity-building programmes which had benefited more than 2,000 participants drawn from media organisations and civil society groups.
The programmes, he said, included investigative journalism training for reporters and editors, specialised workshops covering education, energy, banking, natural resources, agriculture, crime and security, oil and gas, national budgeting and media management.
He added that the Foundation had also organised mobile journalism training across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, fact-checking and verification workshops, budget tracking and public expenditure investigation programmes, as well as Media Enterprise Lab training in digital marketing, multimedia journalism, documentary production, publishing and media business management.
The new Academy, Bala explained, would bring many of those experiences together under one platform while expanding access to professional learning.
A major component of the initiative is the DTF Digital Academy, an online learning platform available through dtfacademy.com.ng, where participants can access journalism and media courses organised into modules, learn at their own pace, take assessment quizzes and obtain certificates after successful completion.
He said the digital model was designed to make professional development accessible to journalists regardless of their location, schedules or other professional responsibilities.
Bala disclosed that the Academy would also provide on-demand training tailored to the needs of media organisations, while strengthening partnerships with academic institutions, media organisations and development partners.
It will also organise specialised workshops and webinars focusing on emerging issues in journalism and communication, as well as conferences and public forums on governance, media, technology and society.
He cited the multimedia journalism training organised for senior editors of the Zamfara State Media Corporation in August 2026 as an example of the Academy’s practical approach. The training lasted two weeks and was designed to strengthen the multimedia capabilities of senior media professionals in the state.
The Foundation chairman further said the Academy had a fully equipped training hall with multimedia facilities capable of supporting both physical and virtual learning.
Continuous Learning Critical to Quality Journalism
In a keynote address at the unveiling, Editor-in-Chief of PREMIUM TIMES, Musikilu Mojeed, said continuous learning had become indispensable to journalism because the profession operated in an environment where society, institutions, technology and methods of information manipulation were constantly changing.
Mojeed said journalism had consequences beyond newsrooms because the quality of reporting influenced public discourse, democratic accountability and citizens’ ability to make informed decisions.
He argued that experience, while valuable, was not enough to guarantee professional competence.
“A good journalist accumulates experience. An excellent journalist examines that experience, learns from mistakes, questions assumptions and develops new capabilities,” he said.
He warned that journalists could become vulnerable to professional stagnation if they allowed years of experience to become an excuse for avoiding further learning.
According to him, the challenge is particularly significant in an age when information is abundant and can spread almost instantly through digital platforms.
Mojeed said the responsibility of journalists was therefore not simply to transmit information but to establish what was true, explain the meaning of facts and help citizens understand why particular issues mattered.
He also stressed the importance of rigorous investigative methods, saying journalists must be able to distinguish between leads and proven facts, suspicion and evidence, and allegations and conclusions that can withstand scrutiny.
“The desire to expose wrongdoing must never excuse lowering our standards of proof,” he said, adding that the duty of journalists was to establish the most defensible account of facts in the public interest.
Focus on Practical Newsroom Needs
While welcoming the establishment of the Academy, Mojeed described it as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the skills journalists currently possess and those required to effectively perform their professional responsibilities.
He particularly highlighted the potential of its digital learning model to reach journalists in smaller newsrooms and those outside Nigeria’s major media centres, where access to professional development opportunities may be limited.
However, he cautioned that accessibility alone would not guarantee the Academy’s success.
He urged the Foundation to ensure that its courses remained relevant to the realities of Nigerian journalism, including limited newsroom resources, safety concerns, legal pressures and the difficulties involved in reporting on public institutions.
He also called for the Academy to draw continuously on the experience of practising journalists and subject specialists and to regularly update its courses in response to emerging developments.
Mojeed further advocated the creation of a continuing community of practice where journalists could exchange experiences, discuss difficult reporting questions and learn from one another.
He said the Academy’s success should not be judged solely by the number of courses offered or participants enrolled, but by improvements in the quality of journalism produced by its graduates, particularly in areas such as verification, public expenditure investigations, data interpretation and fair reporting.
Call for Shared Responsibility
The keynote speaker said continuous professional development should not be left to training institutions alone, urging individual journalists to take responsibility for their own learning by reading beyond their regular beats, keeping abreast of developments in law, economics, technology and society, and remaining open to criticism and correction.
He also called on media executives to create institutional conditions that allow journalists to learn and apply new skills.
“Media owners, editors, academic institutions, professional associations, and development partners all play a role in sustaining professional development beyond isolated workshops,” he said.
Mojeed said better journalism would require learning to become a shared responsibility across the media industry.
He argued that the ultimate beneficiaries of continuous learning were members of the public, who depend on journalists for accurate explanations of government policies, rigorous investigations into public expenditure and fair representation of communities.
He cautioned media organisations against measuring journalistic success exclusively through clicks, shares, audience figures or the speed with which stories are published, saying these indicators could not substitute for accuracy, fairness, depth and public value.
Building a community of media professionals
Bala said the Foundation hoped the Journalism Academy would ultimately create a vibrant community of professionals committed to excellence, innovation and public service.
He encouraged journalists and other participants to take full advantage of the learning opportunities provided by the Academy, particularly as the media industry confronts rapid technological change and increasingly sophisticated forms of misinformation.
The initiative, he said, was intended not only to provide individual journalists with new skills but also to contribute to the broader strengthening of journalism and professional communication in Nigeria.
As the Academy begins its operations, the Foundation is expected to build on its previous training programmes while expanding digital learning, specialised instruction, institutional partnerships and professional forums.
Mojeed, meanwhile, urged the Academy’s founders, partners, instructors and learners to regard the initiative as a long-term investment in the capacity of Nigerian journalism.
He said the profession would continue to face new technologies, changing political and economic conditions and new forms of information manipulation, but argued that journalists could better prepare for those challenges by cultivating a permanent habit of learning.”Journalism will keep changing,” he said. “We cannot predict every challenge, but we can prepare by cultivating the habit of learning.”
