By Sam Tyav, Makurdi
No fewer than 90 Benue State journalists have been trained on information manipulation by the Centre fo Democracy and Development (CDD) West Africa.
CDD explained that the training objective was to enable people to avoid possible causes of violence and unrest in the society.
During the training, the programme staff of the CDD, Mr Raji Olatunji, who identified misinformation, disinformation and malinformation as classifications of information manipulation, urged journalists to avoid all forms of information manipulation to maintain peaceful coexistence and societal development.
This two-day capacity-building workshop which theme was ‘Strengthening Information Literacy and Social Cohesion’, was part of interventions to strengthen information literacy and promote social cohesion in four states: Benue, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau.
Olatunji urged journalists to prioritise fact-checking, verification and ethical reporting as a critical safeguard against the spread of information manipulation, particularly disinformation, which he emphasised was capable of causing violence and social unrest.
Speaking further, Olatunji explained that the training targeted 90 journalists in Benue State, with 45 participants trained on the first day and another 45 for the second day, insisting that journalists were deliberately prioritised because of their central role in shaping the information ecosystem, particularly in an era enveloped by disinformation.
The project, he revealed, was designed against the backdrop of recurring crises in Northern Nigeria, where false information has often been weaponised to incite violence and chaos, noting however, that strengthening journalists’ capacity in fact-checking and ethical reporting was essential, given their influence as key stakeholders in information dissemination.
Olatunji disclosed that before the training, CDD had conducted a community baseline assessment in Obi, Otukpo and Gwer West Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Benue State to understand the grassroots information ecosystem with findings revealing that the media remained one of the most trusted sources of information for the people, thus underscoring the need to continually build journalists’ professional competence.
He stressed that the expectation from the training was for journalists to exercise greater caution in their work by verifying all claims before publication, to avoid being exploited by disinformation actors to destabilise society.
During the training, journalists were introduced to essential verification tools such as Google Reverse Image Search, TinEye, InVID, YouTube DataViewer, WHOIS Lookup and various fact-checking platforms including CDD FactCheck, Africa Check, Dubawa and FactCheckHub.
Ethical reporting standards, warning signs of false information, and strategies for balancing speed with accuracy in news reporting were also discussed.
Practical exercises, including image verification scenarios and ethical dilemma discussions, were conducted to deepen participants’ understanding of real-life newsroom challenges and decision-making.
A participant, Mr Lubem Tiav of Radio Benue, Makurdi, who responded, described the training as very impactful, saying it exposed journalists to the rudiments of fact-checking and ethical reporting, adding that unverified information could cause serious harm to society.
He commended CDD for the initiative even as he appealed to it to sustain the training to further enlighten journalists and enhance their capacity to deliver credible, reliable and balanced information.
*PHOTO CAPTION: Some journalists during the training.
