The President, Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday beckoned on citizens, donors and agencies to join the wagon in fighting misinformation and building trust in the society, NewsSpecng learnt.
The President disclosed this at the 11th session of the global Media and Information Literacy week,(MIL) 2022 Feature conference and Youth Forum, which kicked off Monday, in Abuja.
The programme which was hosted by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is themed ‘Nurturing Trust: A media and information literacy imperative, it aims at equipping citizens with the ability to critically evaluate and wisely use information at their disposal.
He said “ I am informed that one of the major outcomes of this 11th Edition of theGlobal MIL Week Feature Conference and Youth Forum will be the Abuja Declaration. The Declaration, I understand, will centre on Global Financing for Media and Information Literacy, as an imperative to fight misinformation and build trust in our societies. I therefore call on all nations, multilateral and donor agencies as well as people of goodwill to support this genuine and just cause”.
Buhari also noted that the theme of this year’s Global MIL Week, focuses on the use of MIL to address a fundamental element of human and national development, which seems to be waning in most societies of the World.
While speaking on how to confront challenges from rising misinformation and hate speech, the President said the country has over 100 million internet users, of which about 32 million are social media users, Technology and social media offer us nearly limitless opportunities which must be harnessed especially by the youth to strengthen the foundations of our society and our common values.
He said “Getting reliable information is a constant battle. Mediapractitioners and stakeholders within the sector face the clear and present danger of misinformation. Misinformation has been used to aggravate conflicts and crises, exacerbate insecurity, distort government efforts, fuel apprehension among the citizens and create distrust between the governments and their peoples.
“However, in confronting challenges of rising misinformation and hate speech we must also come together to defend freedom of speech, whilst upholding other values that we cherish. We must continue to work for a common standard that balances rights with responsibilities to keep the most vulnerable from harm and help strengthen and enrich our communities and most importantly strengthen trust and social cohesion by improving critical thinking competencies to adequately assess the quality of information received and shared which I believe is a key component of the MIL programme this week. The MIL has over the years proven to be a veritable tool in building the capacities of individuals and communities to learn, decipher, educate and effectively use data and information for the common good.”
Furthermore, Buhari Lauded UNESCO on the establishment of the MIL Coalition of Nigeria (MILCON), a Coalition established to facilitate coordination of interventions on MIL in Nigeria and promote synergy among stakeholders, stressing that the MIL curriculum is already domicile in Mass Communication curriculum for all universities in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, urged participants to take advantage of the event to equip themselves, so as to tackle the deluge of disinformation, misinformation, fake news and hate speech.
