Journalists cautioned on fact-checking

For journalists trading in news, it’s one of those days that credible media houses would opt to go last but with the right news rather than first and false.

The British High Commissioner to Uganda, Kate Airey, has asked Journalists and media professionals to look out for fake news due to it’s threat as the world continues to advance with technology and involvement of Artificial intelligence (AI)

She made these remarks at the closing ceremony during a media training conducted by the African Institute for Investigative Journalism (AIIJ) in partnership with the British High Commission in Uganda under the theme “Demystifying Fake News” on Wednesday, 24th 2023.

“As individuals we are receiving misinformation, disinformation just on a scale we had never seen before and it is extraordinary and we should try to understand that this is all about the truth and search for the truth is becoming difficult to all of us,” said H.E Kate Airey Obe, British High Commissioner to Uganda.

She added, “It is a universal threat, the same challenge as my country is here in Uganda. We have seen videos of politicians across the world going viral only for us to discover that they are actually deep fakes with messages attached that oftenly seem to divide us rather than unite us.

However, like the saying goes, lies reach their destination before truth even sets out on the journey and so it’s true for misinformation.

Amidst different tools and emerging technologies lies an uphill task of finding the right sources of this piece of news, tracing the fake sources, and debunking them, coupled with having the right skill set to counter such fake news.

Early this month, BBC Africa EYE INVESTIGATED Allegations that pointed to the fact that the late Nigerian Televangelist TB Joshua committed widespread sexual abuses at his Synagogue Church of All Nations.

The media house seemed to have identified the claim, found the necessary data, and even authenticated their information which caught the attention of many followers.

 A similar investigation by the same international media house also this month pointed to the fact that they had uncovered a network of fake social media accounts in Uganda, allegedly under false identities, spreading pro-government messaging and targeting critics with threats.

These nearly 200 fake social media accounts operating on X and Facebook are something that was always in the pipeline but never verified.

However, while the BBC might have ticked all the boxes of fact-checking, the reports still posed a lot of questions from the audience as to why for example carry an investigation into the case of TB Joshua who is long dead and can’t have his side of the story, how it could affect the evangelism in Nigeria and across the world or even why not also uncover the opposition fake accounts on the side of Ugandan internet propaganda network.

For fact-checkers like Pius Enywaru, however, would argue that “fact checks don’t strive for balance. They strive for truths and facts. If something is false, it’s false.”

He thus adds that probably before fact-checking it’s better to always know journalism

From facing numerous lawsuits to loss of credibility of the media houses the dilemma lies in how you state the facts but also remain true to the journalism call of balancing the story in any case.

Dorah Atwongyeire, a multimedia journalist emphasizes that depending on the story one is doing, allegations or not, the journalist is not to pass judgment.