Journalists and fact-checkers trained on combating false information online

Kathmandu, Sept 6: A two-day training workshop on 'How to combat false information online? - Be a verification Ninja' concluded in Kathmandu on Tuesday. 

The workshop conducted in collaboration with the Fulbright Commission Nepal on September 5-6 brought together as many as 25 working journalists and fact-checkers. 

Freedom Forum – a civil society organization working on promoting credible and professional media in Nepal – had hosted the workshop to hone journalists' skills to counter misinformation and disinformation propping up in media content, said host organization's media monitoring officer Nanu Khadka Dahal. 

The first session of the workshop was focused on identifying seven types of misinformation and disinformation and importance of journalism in addressing those issues. 

In the second session, participants were busy searching the trends of posting false information on the internet and had practiced monitoring of such trends by using search tools such as Google and Facebook. 

"We were acquainted with five pillars of verification: provenance, source, date, location and motivation", shared Sooraj Roy, a participant. On the fourth practical session today, the participants were taught the use of other skills such as reverse-image search, observation, EXIF data, Google maps and Google search. 

In the concluding session the participants were engaged in the group exercise as to why and how to debunk false information through their reporting by adopting truth sandwich approach. 

Freedom Forum's Executive Chief Taranath Dahal stated that the training workshop was useful for journalists to practice verified and credible journalism in this era of info-demic. 

"The Nepali journalists who attended are smart, hardworking and enthusiastic learners. They understand the danger that false information online poses to democracy, and they are committed to enhancing their skills to combat it". said Fulbright Specialist Linda Austin who led the workshop sessions. 

"This workshop has been very useful. Verification skill is something every journalist should know, and this workshop training meets that objective," said Nanda Lal Tiwari, online coordinator of The Rising Nepal. 

Next slot of the workshop is to be organized in the Bagmati Province Headquarters, Hetauda, on September 8-9. (RSS)