Partnership
By Constance Imasuen
Abuja, April 24, 2018 (NAN) Dr Joe Abah, Country Director, DAI Nigeria, a Global Development Consultancy Firm, has urged government at all levels to curtail the spread of fake news in the country.
Abah, a former Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), who made the call on Tuesday, stressed the need for the government to partner the media on information dissemination.
Abah was speaking at the 2018 Internet Freedom Forum (IFF) powered by Paradigm Initiative, an NGO, with support from Facebook and other partners.
He said that the government should carry the media along when developing policies, saying that the media had the responsibility to educate and inform the citizens.
He said: “My feeling, having being in government is that many ordinary citizens don’t have good awareness of how government works.
“The media have a responsibility to educate and inform and in order to do that properly, the media themselves need to have awareness of how government works and how policies are developed.
“How the budget works and what it means, how things are organised and who is who within, it is important to do that.
“I feel the government doesn’t do enough to carry the media along; if you carry the media along from the beginning, even from when you are developing the policy they will understand what you are trying to do.’’
Abah said that if the media were carried along, for instance on the safeguards put in place against corruption and abuse they would not misinform the public.
On 2019 elections, Abah said the country needs to be a lot more proactive than it did in the past, noting that there should be no vacuum in information dissemination.
He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make the process of obtaining the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) less cumbersome.
He said the process to go through to change address, how to get an amendment of your data and what the arrangement should be on voting day itself, should also be made known by INEC.
According to him, the security arrangement to guide against voting fraud, all of these things matters and therefore, should be communicated to the people.
He said INEC should bring the media and civil societies closer and leverage on their platform to inform the citizens better.
On his part, The Publisher of Premium Times, Mr Dapo Olorunyomi, said the media should educate itself about the nature of news and on how to help fight against fake news.
He said fake news distort governance and put democracy at great risk.
“We need to help promote media literacy because citizens’ power at the end of the day is what will do the fight.
He said fact checking journalism which is a new kind of journalism deploys tools for verification and was crucial to stem the tide of fake news.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IFF helps bring attention to important issues confronting digital rights such as data privacy, internet shutdown, and access to the internet, among others.
The Forum, which is the sixth edition, has delegates from Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Cameroon, Togo, United Kingdom and the United States amongst others. (NAN)
COA/JEY/AFA
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Edited by Johnson Eyiangho/Felix Ajide