Why fake news, purveyors must be checked —Experts

Though speakers at the  two-pronged event: a book presentation and roundtable discussion on fake news and future of the media Lecture, organised by the Right Hand Media, recently, in Lagos, were unanimous on the imperatives of dealing with fake news and its purveyors,  but establishing  a common ground on how to successfully tackle the menace was a  major point of disagreement among speakers and audience, comprising  practitioners in the nation’s marketing communications space and the media.

Firing the first salvo at the event, chaired by the highly-revered legal luminary and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Wole Olanipekun,  former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President  Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati,  had  declared  fake news as a threat to the media, the nation’s democracy and the community, where such news is being peddled.

Giving a definition of fake news, the former presidential aide, stated that fake news has become the hottest object on the planet earth, adding that purveyors usually disseminate such fabricated news, to achieve a specific objective.

He identified globalisation and  the thirst for information,  on- the- go, as some of the critical factors that have continued to fuel the growth of fake news in the society.

According to him, with globalisation and the advent of technology, journalism profession is gradually giving birth to new variants, especially citizen journalism.

“With your mobile phone and a data on it you can disseminate information. In this technology age, therefore, everybody has become a journalist as long as information is being disseminated into the public space, either rightly or wrongly,” he argued.

Abati, however, believes that in the process of disseminating information to the public, some deliberately misinform the innocent reading public; since the threshold of such citizen journalism is not properly defined.

“Fake news create confusion, since it is intended to mislead. It raises the question between media and society, trust and ethics,” he argued.

Citing the last US presidential elections, the former presidential aide argued that  it was obvious that some fake news were deliberately disseminated at that time to give the incumbent president, Donald Trump, an undue advantage over his opponent, Mrs. Hilary Clinton.

“Politicians have used fake news to embarrass,  demarket and blackmail their opponents so as to get that much-needed, but undue, electoral advantage over such opponents. We all saw the Russia’s interference with the last America’s presidential election, by using facebook and other social platforms to discredit Hilary Clinton.

“We’ve reached a stage where fake news has become a huge threat to our democracy, since media, which the people should have turned to for authentications are being used to peddle such news,” he argued.

According to him, the role of the media should be that of a watchdog, an agenda setter, holding  governments, at all levels, accountable to the people.

“But the situation in the media today is  different; since trusts are being breached.  The Code of Ethics of the profession talks about being fair, balanced and  also urge you to leave out, when in doubt.

“But the crisis today is that the media has failed at individual and corporate level. The sub-desk which used to be the gate-keeping arm of the profession has suddenly become the weakest, due to the economic realities of the time”, he argued.

Abati however calls for  stiffer legislations such as the enforcement of the Cybercrime Act, the introduction of Truth –Telling Machines and other fact-checking mechanisms such as Africa Fact Check.

This, the former presidential aide, believes will go a long way in curbing the increasing number of fake news in the society.

Reacting to the paper, a former Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Lagos State Chapter, Mrs. Bolanle Olatunde,  would rather want the social media and other online platforms, which are usually the purveyors of such news to be regulated,  since ‘fake news is increasingly becoming a threat to life’

“Fake news remains a threat to everything. There is nothing good about it. I think the Regulation Bill should come up. Social media must be properly regulated. Technology has not done us any good in this regard. That is why we must act,” argued the former Lagos NIPR Vice Chairman, who claimed to have been a victim of such fabricated  news, severally.

But Femi Awoyemi, Managing Director, Proshea, would  rather prefer  an internal regulation to  government censorship.

He counsels that rather than resort to censorship, erring platforms that deliberately violate the principles guiding information dissemination must be shut down, though not necessarily by government.

Former Editor of the defunct Compass Newspaper, Gabriel Akinadewo would  also  support the idea of the government,  wielding the big stick. For him, fake news and their purveyors must be sanctioned.

“Government should sanction. If you are sure of your facts, go ahead and publish. But the fact remains that some are not just responsible, they publish just to attract followers and gain traction even if it is going to be at the expense of the common good of the society,” he argued.

Bolaji Okusaga of Precise Communications would rather want  existing laws, such as the one against slander, invoked, rather than introduce a new set of laws.

“There are laws against slander. As long as human beings exist, we will always have perspectives. My brands have been severally maligned, but I will still not support the idea of government censorship. It’s not going to be in the interest of anybody at the end of the day,” the former The Quadrant Company boss stated.

Also arguing against censorship,  Chief Wole Olanipekun believed  any attempt at gagging the press would automatically translate to the inhibition of the freedom of the common man.

He stated that  while the media industry embarks on self-cleansing, the searchlight should also be beamed to the public sector.

“Fake news is  also seen  in government. When  a government comes out to say it has tarred a road that  still remains untarred, what such government has simply done there is peddling news that is not true. So the issue of fake news should not be compartmentalized,”  the legal luminary added.

Convener of the discourse,  Mr. Raheem Akingbolu, stated that the decision to organise the forum was to further bring the issue of fake news to the front-burner, to enable stakeholders in the industry proffer lasting solution to the challenge.

Interestingly, while fake news and its purveyors are generally seen as threat to the common good of the media industry, one thing that  is clear is that it might take stakeholders some time before arriving at a consensus on the right regulatory strategies and approach to be adopted, to actually deal with the menace.