iVerify Nigeria
UNDP, IPC launch ‘iVerify Nigeria’ fact-checking platform
International Press Centre (IPC), Nigeria’s foremost media training organization, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Wednesday, formally launched the iVerify Nigeria Project to reduce the high rate of disinformation in the cyber space.
The groundbreaking launch and unveiling of the iVerify Nigeria platform was held in Abuja, where top brass of the media industry in attendance highlighted the need for the state and non-state actors to unite in the fight against fake news.
The iVerify fact-checking platform unveiled to the public, provides alternative factchecking platform to Nigerians to verify claims in the social media with a view to ensuring information integrity in Nigeria.
According to Mr. Lanre Arogundade, chief executive officer of IPC Nigeria, the Spanish Government supports the iVerify initiative, which also seeks to strengthen the fight against rising information disorder caused by the proliferation of disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech in the electoral and democratic processes.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, delivered a keynote address, while the Presidents of guild of Corporate online Publishers, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), D-G of national broadcast commission (NBC) were among the panelists who spoke on the phenomenon of disinformation and need for enforcement of ethical standards in news reporting, increase in media and digital literacy in an era of digital journalism.
Director General of the NBC, Mr. Charles Egugu, says the broadcast regulatory agency is in the process of reviewing the nation’s broadcast code to checkmate information disorder in Nigeria just as a bill to review the establishment act of the national broadcast commission has passed first reading.
Egbabge expressed hope that the new proposal to the NBC bill will give effect to regulatory enforcement regarding the menace of fake news in Nigeria.
The project launch was capped with a panel session that featured panel discussion on the topic “Role of Media and Institutional Stakeholders in Enhancing Information Integrity.”
Speaking on the importance of the iVerify Project to Nigeria’s electoral and governance, the Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Mr. Lanre Arogundade said “If we will get it right at elections and make democracy work, the media must be strengthened to disseminate fact-checked and factually accurate electoral information and information about the governance processes, that is the essence of iVerify.”
