The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) an NGO, on Monday began the training of 100 Journalists on fact-checking, to expedite service delivery in the criminal justice system.

Mr Mboho Eno, Programme Manager/Advocacy of PTCIJ, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, that fact-checking would help to promote accurate and balanced reporting of the judiciary.

Eno said the goal of the training was to improve investigation and fact-checking in the criminal justice system and accountability sectors of Nigeria.

According to him, the training is imperative because of the need for journalists to always examine information before reporting.

Eno said: “Basically, we know there are lots of things going on in the criminal justice and accountability sector, so it became necessary for us to train journalists in this sector, to be able to verify the kind of comments and information that they will be giving out.

“This is one of the least investigated sectors and this is an arm of government that needs to be constantly kept on its toes for proper accountability.

“That is exactly what informed the choice of training journalists across this sector; the training is going to hold in five states, we are just starting in Abuja.

“It is going to come up in Lagos, Kano, and Adamawa, and of course Anambra states.

“The training is funded by the European Union and the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption of the British Council.’’

He reiterated that training and retraining of journalists was key to sustaining balanced news reportage in the sector.

He explained that a total of 550 people applied for the training; and out of the number, only 100 people were selected.

“There is hunger for people who want to learn, but the problem is; we are not able to accommodate all of them, because of the limited resources we have.

“For Abuja we have 20 Journalists that cut across print, broadcast and the online media from the applications,” Eno said.

He identified paucity of funds as the major challenge in organising the training; as the centre relied on funding from donor agencies to be able to achieve the goal.

He further reiterated the centre’s commitment to impacting positively on journalists.

The training which began on Monday is scheduled to end on Sunday.