Inform Africa in partnership with BBC Media Action has successfully conducted a one-day workshop on March 15, titled “A practical Experience of Countering Disinformation in Ethiopia,” for 20 journalists from various Ethiopian media organizations.
The training was given by HaqCheck’s fact-checkers who have good experience in both theoretical and practical fact-checking in Ethiopia. The major topics covered in the training were, the Ethiopian Hate speech and Disinformation Prevention and Suppression Proclamation, disinformation trends in Ethiopia, fact-checking experience in the Ethiopian context and practical use of fact-checking procedures and tools.
By the end of the full-day training, the journalists are expected to understand the importance of fact-checking in the context of Ethiopia, become familiar with fact-checking tools and methodologies, be able in validating user-generated content, and have a proper understanding of disinformation pathways and effects in Ethiopia.
Moreover, the training is supposed to influence the content creation in the trainees’ prospective media outlets from the point of view of countering disinformation.
Inform Africa believes building the capacity of journalists and media houses is vital in changing the media landscape and creating a media literate consumer. To this end, such consecutive and practical training plays a crucial role.
In addition to that Inform Africa believes it is a good starting point to reach out to a wider public and embark on bringing societal change.
Some of the major areas Inform Africa is working on are countering disinformation, enhancing media literacy, and providing media-related training in collaboration with other organizations and media outlets.
