Bajin D. Pobia
Wa, April 23, GNA – Dubawa Ghana, a fact-checking arm of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, has appealed to journalists to strictly adhere to the principles and ethics of the profession to help build credibility for public trust.
For journalists, the most important asset is credibility in the news sold out, which could be achieved through constant adherence to the principles and ethics of the profession to win public trust.
Mr Nathan Gadugah, the Editor of Dubawa Ghana, said the organisation had experienced a worrying increasing trend of misinformation and disinformation within the media landscape, particularly social media across the world, and it deemed it fit to help to address it.
He said it was not for nothing that when news broke, people prioritised certain media organisations to confirm that news due to the trust and credibility.
He said so far as those media houses were associated with credibility and truthfulness, they would remain trusted sources for news.
“If a media organisation, therefore, loses credibility and is noted for sending false news, people always take news from that organisation with a pinch of salt,” he said.
Mr Gadugah said this in Wa at a two-day training workshop organised for 35 journalists from the Upper West Region on fact-checking to help reduce the rate of information disorder, also known as fake news or misinformation by the media.
It was expected to build the fact-checking capacity of participants to enable them to verify news, videos and other materials to promote accountable journalism.
“As a journalist, you must aspire to be associated with credibility and integrity, for people to appreciate the work you do….The moment you lose that credibility, and integrity, people would not take you and your organisation seriously,” he said.
“This is what actually differentiates people who are on social media as against the traditional trusted media houses. While some on social media are banking their hopes on popularity, those in the traditional media are banking their hopes on credibility. For a journalist, your most important asset is your credibility even when the news is trending.”
Madam Caroline Anipa, the Deputy Director of Dubawa, who educated the journalists on “Digital Verification Tools”, said the issue of misinformation and disinformation had existed since creation but it had become a challenge because of technological advancement and the advent of the internet.
The public considered journalists as a trustworthy constituency for the information they provided, hence the need to build their capacity to avoid misinforming and disinforming their audiences.
Madam Anipa said Dubawa’s duty was to address the issues of fake news and appealed to the public to show concern in that regard to minimise the canker due to the dangers associated with it.
“People must safely guide the type of information transmitted to the public to help sustain Ghana’s democracy through the provision of accurate information using appropriate digital verification tools to fact-check and identify fake news,” she said.
The journalists were educated on Verification and Media Literacy Practice, Introduction and Pre-test, Information Disorder Ecosystem, Fact-checking, Practice and Methodology, Digital Verification Tools, and Practice Claim Identification in various formats.
GNA