DUBAWA, CJID trains Journalists on Fact-checking, digital skills
2 min read
By Adesuwa Ehimuan
Ahead of September 21st Governorship election in Edo State, a reputable non governmental organization, DUBAWA Nigeria in collaboration with Google News Initiative has trained Journalists on rudiments of fact-checking and digital skills.
The two days training took place at Edo Heritage Hotel, Benin city, Edo State. Declaring the training open, the Program Officer of DUBAWA Nigeria, Ms. Temilade Onilade said that the organization’s goal is to empower Journalists with digital skills and fact checking tools to reduce the spate of fake news and misleading information which often times cause tension that leads to crisis.
The resource persons who took turns to deliver their lectures are the Deputy Director, Accountability Project of the center for Journalism Innovation and development, Mr. Mbohor Eno, Director of Programmes, Akintunde Babatunde and that of Audience Engagement, Lateef Sanni, basically dwelt on how Journalists could carry out fact-checking on stories, videos and images before puting them out for public consumption.
According to the Program Officer of DUBAWA Nigeria, Ms. Temilade, as the society is evolving, Journalists must have open mind and embrace new trends.
She further stressed that Journalists must desist from old practices that have not helped to improve the Profession and embrace better and innovative approaches that would help to reduce misleading and fake information.
Speaking on how Journalists could fact-check doctored images and videos , the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Disorder Analyst (DAIDAC), Silas Jonathan revealed technics and methods that could help reporters to fact check stories before publishing them.
Mr. Silas pointed out that the only way media houses could be distinguished is when they carry out proper fact checking on stories and images and report facts to the public.
Highpoint of the event was the interactive section where Journalists asked questions, and received clarifications from the resource persons.
The journalists drawn across the country expressed satisfaction and called for sustainance of such training.
Three of the participants, Mrs Berikisu Abdulahi from Kwara state, Flora Bossey from Edo state and Mr Sunday Elom from Enugu appreciated Dubawa and CJID, for the two days training on fact checking, Google tools for fact checking, Google advanced search , cyber security and freedom of information Act.
