Journalists Train in Fact Checking Skills.

A Fact-Checking Organisation, Dubawa-Ghana, as part of their mandate to equip media personnel with fact-checking skills in the rural areas of a
Ghana has selected the number of 20 Journalists drawn from Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Oti, Central, and Ashanti Region respectively to undergo a two-day training in fact-checking.

The training which focuses was to training journalists in remote communities in Ghana,  underscored some of the information disorders among journalists in the information gathering chain to fact check in the dissemination of information in their profession.

The journalists were taken through fact-checking skills to equip themselves to overcome some of the common information disorders as well as to also help train their colleagues in their various newsrooms to set up a fact-check desk to combat all forms of fake news referred to as information disorders.

Among some of the Dubawa facilitators who assisted in training includes, Roseline Ahiaba, Caroline Anipah, Nathan Gadugah, Tanko Musah Zakaria and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) combined their skills in the two-day training to train the media personnel to combat against fake news circulation.

Caroline Anipah speaking to Sorieenews emphasized that not all that seems to appear on social media believe to be so as we see it hence, there is the need for journalists to go the extra mile to fact-check and research into most of the information that comes our way before we disseminate it to avoid information disorders. 

She said, the duty lies on the journalists to spot fake news or information disorders through fack checking to boost the standardization of information gathering, since the information and media ecosystem has changed, the understanding of the current state of new media combined with the traditional media content sharing should be a matter of concern to journalists to fact check every bit of information received before sharing. 

The techniques and skills of fact-checking, the tools involved, the law and ethics, digital verification tools, and identification of claims of fact-checking, steps involved were among some of the courses the journalists had the opportunity to abreast with during the training. 

Some of the participants who traveled from far and near for the training commended Dubawa Fact Checking Organisation and expressed their appreciation to the organizers for such in-depth knowledge acquired checking skills as journalists. 

Story by Richard Adu Manu.