By Tina George
#TrackNigeria: The Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) has selected journalists for a six months fact-checking project – Dubawa, aimed at tackling societal menace of mis and dis-information in Nigeria and beyond.
The selected journalists are currently undergoing a four-day intensive training in Abuja.
The Project Officer of Dubawa, Ebele Oputa said the training is well-primed to lay a foundation for the fellows as well as prepare them for the six month fellowship.
According to her, the selected journalists would be taken through courses on the misinformation ecosystem, news industry transformation, research and data journalism, investigative journalism, and fact checking/ verification as innovation to today’s journalism.
“This training has been carefully designed to provide, not just a one-directional training for the fellows but to encourage engaging conversations between the trainers and the fellows, so that the right approaches to solving the misinformation problem in Nigeria and instituting a culture of truth in newsrooms can be attained,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the PTCIJ Executive Director, Dapo Olorunyomi, the Deputy Programmes Director, Tosin Alagbe lamented that fake news and misinformation, though not a new phenomenon, had become widespread with the advent of technology.
She added that Dubawa intends to use technology to counter the spread of fake news.
The Communications Manager of Heinrich Boll Stiftung in Nigeria, Chibueze Ebii said the aim of the fellowship was to foster a culture of fact-checking in newsrooms and hopefully encourage newsrooms to have a fact-checking desk.
The Fellowship is inspired by the need to tackle the societal menace of mis and dis-information in Nigeria, thereby creating a safer media ecosystem where truth and accuracy could thrive without jeopardizing freedom of expression.
