Over 20 Liberian Journalists Undergo Facts Checking Training

MONROVIA-A call for journalists to battle misinformation and disinformation has been stressed at the start of a three-day training workshop in Liberia.

The training being conducted is the second of a two-part three-day (June 28 – 30) fact-checking training workshop for 20 journalists selected from across the country.

Local Voices Liberia in partnership with Internews and other local media development organizations are implementing the ongoing Liberia Media Initiative (LMI) project with funding from the European Union.

Speaking at the start of the training, the President of the Reporters Association of Liberia, (RAL) on behalf of the institution expressed appreciation to Local Voices Liberia and its partners for the opportunity provided its members.

She said, “There is no better time than now especially when the country is poised to go to the election next year.”

According to her, the world is in a digital media stage, a stage where someone will write or say anything negative or positive about the other.

“At this stage, some of the information are distorted, half-baked true and some are not even near to the truth; it is called” misinformation and disinformation,” she said.

The RAL boss told the gathering that politicians and their supporters will make claims, wide cat allegations, posted on social media, they will engage microphones our newspapers offices of journalists with some untruthful information but was quick to tell let them know that the tool to check and counter check that information that will be encountered during and after these upcoming elections.

“Some of the tools are these kinds of trainings,” she said. Hope you are all here with an opened mind so that you can help the public get the rightful information as it is healthy for our democracy and best practice of our profession” the RAL boss said.

Speaking earlier, Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, Program Director at Local Voices Liberia said seeks to further broaden these selected journalists’ ability to do fact checking.

According to him, the training will help greatly in doing away with disinformation and misinformation in Liberia mainly that time the country is expecting an election next year.

According to him, most of the information on social media made by politicians and ordinary private citizens are sometimes distorted and those needed to counter check.

Also speaking was the Deputy Information Minister for Technical Service Boakai Fofana extolled the Local Voices for providing such training for Liberian Journalists.

According to him, facts checking by journalists   that of which Local Voices are doing will allow politicians and others to be credible about their information and actions.

Minister Fofana said once  the media engaged in facts checking  and coming out  with the facts regarding claims  that politicians  and some media individuals  made   they will be in the know  that some  journalists  are now facts checking their information.

According to him, fake news  has been on the raised  and  it is  through  these process  of facts checking  can allow  the public  to be fully informed on  the reality among others.

At the same  time,  the Vice President of  the Press Union of Liberia  Daniel Nyankonah told  the participants  that  it is good  to always participate in training that will improve their capacity especially in facts checking.