In the present era when countless fake news and misinformation have taken over the airwaves, Fact-Check Africa, the continent’s first independent fact-checking organization, has kicked off a two-day training for twenty select journalists and editors from the South East Nigeria, in Enugu.
The workshop is hinged on basic and advanced fact-checking methodologies and tools to promote public accountability and evidence based public discourse.
The two-day workshop is meant to expose practicing journalists to the rudiments of factual information, how to separate facts from fiction, and how to hold public officials accountable for whatever false information they dish out.
The workshop, which has the support of the United States Consulate in Nigeria, and the International Press Center, was anchored by International Media Trainers who took the participants through the basics identifying and questioning fake news using evidence based
strategies and asking commonsense questions.
An International Media Trainer and Journalist, Mr. Raymond Joseph was one of the resource persons at the workshop, and gave a run-down of steps to fact check, noting that is important to identify the original source of information, verify the content and ask necessary questions on how the final conclusion was reached.
The international media trainer also spoke about knowing the quality of the source, methodology, and whether any important information has been excluded in a way that influences the interpretation or application of the data.
Another resource person at the workshop, an award winning Broadcast Journalist, Miss Funke-Treasure Durodora, who took the participants through the basics of solution-driven reporting of campaign promises and taking investigative steps and telling impactful stories, said that journalists must be able to effectively document, track and monitor comments, promises and accounts made by public officials, especially in post election reports.
Delivering a paper on “journalism and media sources and why facts matter in new processes”, a Researcher and Community Manager with the Africa Check, Mr. Orwell Opidi, said it was crucial for
journalists to put in serious efforts to ensure that both the pictures and figures they use or intend to make references to in their reports, have been thoroughly checked out for authenticity.
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