By Mabinty M. Kamara
In an effort to minimize the spread of misinformation and disinformation in Sierra Leone and across Africa, the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) in partnership with a fact-checking institution in Nigeria, Africa Check has organized a two-day master class for senior journalists across Sierra Leone.
The training which started on Monday this week and ended yesterday 22nd March 2023 was aimed at strengthening the fact-checking skills of the journalists and to further improve the quality of journalistic contents and reports.
Speaking at the opening of the training, the Coordinator of MRCG Dr. Francis Sowa said in 2018, the group rolled out an election-sensitive reporting initiative, saying that the media was a major contributing factor in the outcome of the election, highlighting information management among others due to that project.
This, he said is the basis on which they approached the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a key funder of the project to ensure a credible and peaceful outcome of the June 24 2023 elections of Sierra Leone.
He encouraged the journalists to be active and vibrant in debunking misinformation as it is not only a service to the nation, but to the media itself, saying that a crisis caused by misinformation will also affect the media.
The trainer, David Ajikobi who is the Country Director, Africa Check Nigeria emphasized the dangers of misinformation and disinformation as the country approaches the elections. He noted that the media is key in information flow, saying that “if the media get it right, society get it right if the media get it wrong, society will get it wrong because whatever you feed to society, society takes.”
The journalists were taken through fact-checking processes which include skills to identify false information and claims and verify them, and were also exposed to practical tools in fact-checking and verifying information.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (22/03/23)
