By Landing Ceesay
Center for Democracy and Development, CDD-West Africa, Center for Research and Policy Development, CRPD and Fact-Check Centre, The Gambia (FCCTG) yesterday began a two-day countering fake news training.
The training is being attended by media and civil society actors with the objective to engage, learn, and share experiences on how to counter fake news, misinformation and disinformation in the Gambia.
The event also aims to discuss how different actors could work collaboratively to combat the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation.
Dr. Luqman Saka, Research and Knowledge Management Director of CRPD, said Misinformation and Disinformation are large spread through alternative media or social media.
“The importance of this workshop cannot be over emphasis. We live in an environment that is largely run by information. It is also an environment characterized by information saturation. There is too much information circulating in our social space. So the task of shelving what is right, what is wrong, and what is partially true but largely embedded by narratives becoming very tasking demands,” Dr. Saka said.
Meanwhile, Austin Aigbe, Senior Programme Officer at CDD- West Africa, said there should be a legal framework to cope with the spread of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
“We thought other countries won’t have fake news like Nigeria. But there is also fake news in the Gambia. Whether it is a rumour that the President has been assassinated, or whatever it is. What is happening is that people are twisting information to gain support. So how can we fight against fake news, misinformation, disinformation and misinformation? That’s why we are here today and tomorrow,” he said.
The training is scheduled to end at 4 pm today.