The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in collaboration with Albarka 89.9 FM, Ganmo, Kwara State on Wednesday organised a one-day media round-table program on “story fact-checking and effectiveness of local government structure in promoting accountability” with participants drawn from media practitioners from various organizations across the state.
The round-table programme funded by the MacArthur Foundation was held at City-In-Hotel, G.R.A Ilorin, with media executives and journalists from conventional and new media in attendance.
The 29 participants which comprised 18 males and 11 females were engaged and schooled on how to take advantage of technology to disseminate accurate news by deploying various fact-checking tools available online to double-check any information or imagery.
In her lecture delivered via virtual, Zainab Sanni of News Verifier Africa charged participants to take advantage of various fact-checking tools for investigative reporting to be accurate and factual in their news reports said it will give their medium more recognition and credibility.
Also, a second guest lecturer Yomi Adeboye, general manager of Herald Newspaper, charged the participating journalists to pay more attention to local governance and said it’s a tier of government that is deliberately formed to drive development at the grassroots level and added that journalists must always ask question on how the taxpayer’s money is being spent by authorities at the local council secretariat.
He also urged media organizations and practitioners to always encourage developmental journalism.
