As Nigeria’s 2019 elections draw near, First Draft News and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) have trained journalists from over a dozen Nigerian news organisations “to combat misinformation, fake news and other information disorders that might have a negative impact on the polls.”
The two-day training codenamed: the “Nigerian Verification Project” aims at improving the quality of information available to the voting public, debunk misinformation and fake news as well as empower journalists with ‘crosschecking’ skills ahead of the elections.
Speaking on Monday at the opening ceremony in Lagos, the Executive Director of ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, whose organisation will coordinate the project, explained how Nigerian politicians weaponised information either to deceive the public or injure the reputation of political opponents.
He said social media platforms especially “Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, have become avenues for politician to spread misinformation, rumour, falsehood and fake news,” adding that “the media bears responsibility to verify information being churned out on social media to ensure that they are true.”
“Journalists need to learn the skills to verify and fact check such misinformation and debunk them before they mislead people or cause harm,” he noted.
He said the verification project will allow about 15 newsrooms in Nigeria, including print, electronic and online media, collaborate to investigate claims and rumours circulating on social media and debunk them before they go viral, saying “no newsroom in Nigeria can singlehandedly confront the daily circulation of fake news with significant effect.”
Also speaking, the managing director of First Draft News, Jenni Sargent, said her organisation is poised to empower journalists to curb how fake news and misinformation spread like wildfire during election periods across the world.
She noted that First Draft News has developed a reliable technology to verify information, to nearly 100 percent accuracy and will empower every participant with skills needed for the task.
She added that the technology has already been deployed in France and Brazil, saying it is currently also conducting research into how misinformation spreads in several countries including Nigeria, India, Brazil, Pakistan and Myanmar.
“We really want this project to be driven and owned by Nigerian journalists as you know your audiences and political context far better,” says Phoebe Arnold, the International Projects Co-ordinator at First Draft News.
The verification project is a collaboration between Nigerian media organisations, First Draft News and the Information Disorder Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Centre.
Media houses involved in the Nigerian Verification Project include Daily Trust, The Guardian, Punch, The Sun, Tribune and The Nation.
Others are Channels Television, Premium Times, The Cable, Sahara Reporters, ICIR, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Africa check, AFP and West Africa Service.
Similarly, the Mass Communication Department of the University of Lagos, is joining as a research partner in the collective effort and will help test interventions and conduct computational research for the project.
Reporting will be done through a central portal (the CrossCheck platform) billed for launch on Wednesday. In addition, such reports will then be amplified by the project partners via their own channels and publications, to ensure more Nigerians gain access to accurate information.
Participants in the coalition will also benefit from continuous training and the opportunity to share knowledge, tips and expertise with each other across newsrooms via the CrossCheck platform.
