BY OLORUNFERANMI ODOFIN & OLUWATOSIN IGHOTEGUONO
Journalists have been encouraged to always fact-check their reports to guard against fake news.
Some resource persons gave the advice in Akure during a two-day capacity building on combating information disorder in democratic Governance reporting using Fact-checking and Freedom of Information tools.
The training session for Journalists in the South West held in the Ondo State capital was organised by the International Press Centre, IPC with the support of European Union.
The Executive Director of IPC, Mr Lanre Arogundade said the training was aimed at supporting democratic governance in Nigeria by combating fake news, mis, dis or Mal information as well as holding Nigerian politicians accountable to their electoral promises.
Mr Arogundade explained that fake news could cause anxiety among other societal pains hence the need for journalists to constantly fact-check news.
Another facilitator, the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Mr Martins Oloja, charged journalists to follow up on key issues and as well hold politicians accountable to their electoral promises for better society.
The facilitators advised journalists to be conversant with the fact-check tools with a view to checking misinformation induced by the social media.
Some participants described the training declared open by Ondo State NUJ chairman, Prince Leke Adegbite as overdue and eye-opener.
Reflecting on their take home, some of the participants, Mr Pelumi Olukoga, Mrs Funmi Falaye and Mr Lekan Akindoju lauded IPC for its timely training and promised to inject all they were taught into their works for better monitoring of governance.
At the end of the 2 day workshop over 30 participants signed up as IPC/EUSDGN Fellows to combact information disorder