Media practitioners have urged have appealed to International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, Abuja to extend the training on countering misinformation and media literacy training to Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ State councils.
This, they believed would positively shape the practice of journalism as well as protect the ethics of the profession.
The media practitioners gave the urge during the last Congress of Ogun State NUJ council, held in Abeokuta, after a session for Stepdown training.
It would be recalled that the ICIR with the support of German Embassy trained some selected journalists across the country for two-days on “Countering Misinformation and Promoting Media Literacy”.
The former Chairman of the Union, Comrade Wole Shokunbi noted that with the advancement of technology, journalists must be deliberate about authenticity of their contents before pushing to the public.
Shokunbi who commended ICIR for the project, revealed that large of percentage of Journalists are guilty of not verifying facts, saying they are always in haste.
To the Chairman of the Consolidated Chapel of the NUJ, Comrade Olusegun Olukoga, such training became imperative with the influx of non professionals into the media space due to advent of Information Communication Technology ( ICT) via internet.
He noted that media practitioners must horn their skills and knowledge as well as be familiar with necessary tools to tackle the scourge of misinformation through thorough fact-checking.
Olukoga said that the current information and communication disorder is a concern for journalists hence the need for ICIR and other relevant organisations to sustain the tempo of the training across the nation.
Femi Adediran of Telegraph newspaper, said domiciling of the training of State councils would help in countering misinformation.
He applauded ICIR for the initiative, noting that the educational exercise has opened his eyes on how to identify manipulated videos, pictures and audio recordings.
He also advocated for continuous training of media practitioners in the country, noting that many journalists still lack the necessary skills to check disinformation and misinformation in circulation.
Saheed Adeola of Fresh fm, Abeokuta, disclosed that he felt renew and refresh with the training, insisting that all journalists must embrace tools in order to bring sanity to the media sector, lamenting that manipulated materials have taken over the media space, especially on social media platforms.
According to Kehinde Thomas, a Press officer of the State Information Ministry, lauded ICIR, saying the training must be sustained in order to tackle the menace of misinformation and disinformation which conventional media practitioners were battling with.
