The Safeguarding Online Civic Space,SOCS have call on the media to continue to help combat misinformation, disinformation and fake news by fact checking and providing accurate reporting.
The Chair of a Civil society Group, Safeguarding Online Civic Space, SOCS, Dr Funmi Akinyele renewed the call at a news briefing in Ikeja Lagos.
Dr Akinyele pointed out that the integrity of this year’s general elections was significantly tested in the online civic space by the hydra-hcaded monster ‘fake news’ which took different shapes as millions of Nigerians, particularly eligible voters, got their information from social media.
She noted that the misuse and repression of both offline and digital civic spaces, have contributed to the perceptions, mostly negative, of members of the international Community about Nigeria and in a bid to address this, the Safeguarding Digital Civic Space for Electoral Integrity, SDSEI, project is engaging Critical stakeholders across board to ensure proper enlightenment, freedom of expression, and education of the populace on their civic and voter rights, irrespective of cultural, religious and political affiliations.
Dr Akinyele emphasised that journalists and media organisations must make it a responsibility to further help in enhancing digital literacy especially among the youths.
“Our goal is to build a movement of well informed digital literate young people who are leadership ready and to create an environment where the digital civic space is safe for all. To strengthen the integrity of electoral processes in the country, the digital civic space must be protected” she said
In a remark, a representative of the Research Centre for Development Action, Austin Aigbe explained that prior to the elections, 108 fact checkers were trained to burst fake news which could have further affected the integrity of the last elections. And about 60 claims were bursted in the last few months.
Aigbe urged government agencies to always release information as and when due to check misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
He said “each time government fails to put out information as quickly as possible, it create rooms for disinformation peddlers to push out their own narratives and it takes more work to sieve out the right information, the media must be conscious of the right information, as a matter of urgency, if you cannot independently verify a story, don’t share it”
On her part, Anita Graham, from the African Girl Child Support Initiative and Learners Corners advised those who were first time voters in the last elections not to let the challenges encountered deter them from participating in future electoral processes.
The advocacy to protect the civic space is being taken round the nation’s six geo-political zones by the Civil Society Organisation.