Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has charged journalists to be equipped with the knowledge of digital verification and fact checking skills for the purpose of accurate and objective reportage.
The training was coming on the heels of the spread of fake news which have saturated the digital space.
The two days training which held from 1st and 2nd February was held in Port Harcourt and organised by the CJID through its fact checking project Dubawa in partnership with the Google news initiative.
Speaking to NatureNews on the importance of the training to Journalists, The Editor of Dubawa Nigeria, Mr Kemi Busari, said the training was conceived to help reporters understand the importance of media and information literacy.
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He said that the training is also aimed to equip journalists with fact checking skills as Nigerias election approaches. It is important to converge Journalist in Rivers State and empower them with skills to refine their reportage, he said.
Busari advised journalists to see the task of fact checking as a responsibility.
He said, We midwife information, so it is important for us to put out accurate information.
This is the first training of Dubawa for Journalists in Rivers state and we are quite pleased with the kind of reception that we got. We hope that the Journalists will put what they have learnt in practice. Our idea is usually to train and help people to understand the basics and also encourage them to apply them into practice.
We are also looking at the opportunity for Journalists to teach some of their colleagues in the future.
We are also doing the training in five West African states which include: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and the Gambia.
The Programme officer, Dubawa Nigeria, Temilade Onilade, also added the digital verification and fact checking workshop is basically to ensure that Journalists are equipped with necessary skills to fact check information as it come and we are hoping that Journalists will take forward the baton of verification as the election approaches. We are hoping that Journalists will use the skills learnt to verify information to ensure citizens receive accurate information and help combat disinformation most especially in the coming elections.
