Mr Joshua Olufemi, Programme Director, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) says the destructive tools of technology and elements of misinformation have challenged journalists in effort to ensure balanced reporting.
He said this in Abuja at the celebration of the end of the maiden edition of Dubawa, a fact-checking Fellowship programme aimed at rescuing journalists from the danger of misinformation.
Hate Speech Bill: Ahmed Lawan replies HURIWA
He said PTCIJ came up with a fact-checking programme called Dubawa, an Hausa word meaning to check or verify, to rescue the profession of journalism from misinformation.
“As much as journalists have inherent culture in their principles to be balanced, fair, factual and verify everything, the destructive tools of technology and elements of misinformation have armed themselves to discredit journalists,” he said.
He further said that PTCIJ came up with a fact-checking programme called Dubawa to rescue the profession of journalism.
Olufemi said that the Fellowship programme was not set up to service Premium Times Newspaper but for it to become a capacity tool for every other newsroom in Nigeria.
“The primary goal is to have newsrooms with the culture of fact-checking and instituting desks for it, ” he said.
Contributing, Ebele Oputa, Dabuwa’s Programme Officer, said the fellowship was a six-month intensive training programme which started in June 1 and ended on Nov. 30.
She said: “The Fellowship involves five journalists selected from The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), The Nation, Tribune, Guardian and Business Day.
“The participants are to consistently produce fact-checks that will be published, not just on their platforms but also on Dubawa, to encourage the spread of real news, through fact-check to many more people.
“Within six months, the participants have been able to produce more than 66 fact-checks published on Dubawa and on the participants` platforms, ” she said.
She said the fellowship would be an annual programme, pending on funding.
According to her, Dubawa partners with a German foundation, Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS) for funding, and substituted the rest of the funding for the effective realization of the objectives of the programme.
In his remarks, Mr Mojeed Musikilu, Editor-in-Chief, Premium Times Newspaper, stressed the need for partnership among journalists in Nigeria to “make our country better.“
Mr Chibueze Ebii, Communications Manager, HBS expressed delight about the partnership between HBS and Dubawa on the programme, saying that HBS was a foundation that looked into sustainable development.
He said he would ensure the scaling up of the fellowship programme to have more newsrooms.
Alhaji Ibrahim Mammanga, Acting Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) thanked the management of Dubawa for the training and promised to cooperate with them.
He urged the participants of the programme to spread the knowledge they acquired and avail their colleagues to enhance the process of verifying information before publication.
The acting managing director promised to create fact check desk in NAN within two to three weeks.
Mrs Ebere Agozie, a participant from NAN, said she had learnt to be patient and thorough in her reports saying that as a fact checker, there would be people who would also fact-check her.
She also said that she had been able to do 28 fact checks on reports to correct the wrong narratives and assertions made by prominent people in the country.
Another participant, Justina Asishana from The Nation Newspaper, said the experience from the training had been enlightening, saying that she could differentiate between claims and mere saying and why claims needed to be verified.
Niyi Oyedeji, from Tribune said the fellowship had been an eye opener that had exposed him to new knowledge to train his colleagues in the newsroom.
He, however, identified insufficient data in terms of statistics to back up reports and delayed feedback as well as opinions from people as some of the challenges confronting journalists in their fact-checking.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.