POLITICIANS have been described as the greatest sources of fake news in Nigeria.
Former Editor-in-chief, Newswatch magazine and Executive Director of MayFive Media, Dan Agbese stated this in a paper presentation in an occasion marking the 20th anniversary of Eggon Newspaper in Lafia the capital of Nasarawa State.
He said, “politicians are the loudest voices of condemning fake news sources but I tell you this: politicians are the greatest sources of fake news.
“Their capacity to manufacture and purvey fake news is legendary, fishing the opportunity to pile it on opponents to sink them in the choppy waters of primitive politics, here and elsewhere.”
Agbese, who spoke on the topic: “Democracy and Development: Community Newspaper in the Age of Fake News”, added that all news medium suffered from virus of manipulations by the government, institutions and individuals while rendering services to the public, saying Eggon News also faced with peculiar situation for the past twenty years of community services.
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“If a community newspaper is the only medium in town open to the people, the threat is complicated, it is easily vulnerable to the manipulation of those pursuing a political, ethnic and religious interest.
“Politicians have the intolerable habit of insisting that they are more entitled than others to be heard. In the community newspaper, they are prepared to persuade the editor to give them special treatment,” he said.
The guest speaker then called on the media in the developed countries to employ professionals called for fact-checkers, adding that checking every piece of information available to media should be taken with all sense of seriousness to maintain the integrity of the medium.
In his vote of thanks, Mr Matthew Kuju, the Editor-in-chief of Eggon News, appreciated the gathering for identifying with the paper at 20, assuring to move the paper to another level.
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