Journalists urged to strengthen professional relationships to enhance media collaboration

Journalists urged to strengthen professional relationships to enhance media collaboration

Media practitioners across West Africa have been urged to strengthen their professional relationships with one another to enhance their collaboration, strengthen communication, combat disinformation, and promote regional development.

Ms Maria Sanchez, Coordinator, Foundation for the Internationalisation of Public Administrations (FIAP), made the appeal on Tuesday in Lagos at a capacity-building workshop aimed at equipping journalists with skills to counter misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.

The Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that the workshop was organised by ECOWAS in collaboration with FIAP, a Spanish public sector organisation, which works to improve public systems and democratic governance globally.

Sanchez stressed the importance of grassroots engagement, saying civil society organisations and the media were critical links between government institutions and citizens.

According to her, the roles of the media and civil society are particularly important in communities outside national capitals.

Also speaking, Ms Olafusi Ebunoluwa, Editor of the CableCheck, emphasised the need for issue-based reporting and responsible use of digital tools.

Ebunoluwa urged journalists to scrutinise claims, sources, websites, photographs, videos and social media content before publication.

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She said journalists should approach information with healthy suspicion and determine whether a claim required fact-checking based on its potential impact on the public.

The media expert also raised concerns over the growing use of deepfakes, synthetic media and AI-generated images, audio recordings and videos to mislead audiences.

She urged journalists to develop stronger digital verification skills to identify manipulated and fabricated content.

Ebunoluwa further advised journalists to use artificial intelligence as an assistant rather than a replacement for their professional responsibilities.

According to her, journalists must retain editorial control, exercise sound judgement and ensure that technology did not compromise accuracy, credibility and professional ethics.

She said responsible journalism remained essential to protecting the public from false and misleading information, particularly in the digital age.