By Ishaya Ibrahim
Media organisations in Nigeria, in partnership with First Draft, a United Kingdom information technology company, have launched Cross Check Nigeria, a project comprising 20 newsrooms that would work together to debunk widely circulated misinformation on the internet.
The Journalists from the organisations that formed the coalition were also trained on how to use technology to verify videos, pictures or news items that claim to represent what they are not.
First Draft team of Jenni Sargent and Phoebe Arnold provided the training, which they had earlier done in France and Brazil.
A journalist from Brazil, Pedro Noel, shared the country’s experience and how it was used to debunk misleading claims, especially during the country’s October presidential election.
At the launch of the project on November 28, Sargent explained the reason for the coalition.
“Sometimes, proving that something is untrue is a matter of 30 seconds. You do something called the reverse Google image search and it will tell you that the image you are looking at, the claims to a story, turns out to be from ten years ago. Done! Tell the public and move on. Why would every journalist in every newsroom have to do that same search when one person can do it, send the message to the rest of the team in various newsrooms around Nigeria who then say okay we agree.
“And the crucial part of this project is that when they agree, they put their logos to say our credible newsrooms agree with this statement. So, the public gets to see a report that has all of these trusted logos side by side agreeing with the final conclusion about a piece of information that would have been circulating on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp,” she said.
At the launch of the project on November 28, a panel discussion on combating ‘fake news’ was moderated by Professor Abigail Ogwezzy, head of Mass Communications department, University of Lagos.
The Guardian newspaper Executive Editor, Martins Oloja, said the Cross Check Nigeria project was auspicious.
“I’m a member of several WhatsApp groups and I can see the spread of false information. The creators of fake news can be resourceful. You can easily believe it. That’s why this training matters. We need to come together. Facts are sacred,” he said.
TheNiche managing director, Ikechukwu Amaechi, explained that fake news is not new, but only amplified by social media.
“It is outright propaganda pushed out to dis-inform and cause a whole lot of confusion. Is it a reality? Yes. How do we check it? We go back to the traditional norm of journalism – investigative journalism. You must be able to investigate,” he said.
Ronke Raji, representing the chief executive officer of Channels Television, John Momoh, said journalists should never be tired of cross checking.
“The standard form of journalism is what we practice. We cross check ,double check and check again.” she said.
Executive Director of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, Dayo Aiyetan, said technology has revolutionised the media sphere, but it has also worsened the fake news phenomenon.
“One fake news item, within one hour can go viral and do so much damage. But the good news is that it is the same technology we can use to fight this phenomenon,” he said.