Journalist in the North West Region have been skilled on fact checking and investigating sources of information online, at a workshop organized by Draufsicht Bamenda.

The founder and coordinator of Draufsicht Bamenda, Dzebam Godlove, who laments that the training is aimed at supporting journalists with competence in verrifying information online. “we live in very dangerous times, where any person can post anything on social media tagging wrong info to it and derail the population…It is important for Journalists to be equiped with tools to verify what is shared on social media, and be responsible for what they write or say. These tools will support their work” he states.

Founder, Draufsicht, Dzebam Godlove

Facilitating during the workshop, Vianney Forewah, a digital activist, drilled participants on basic ways of verrifying information online, and the importance of having a credible source of information.

“We can use reverse imaging and we can do cross-section evaluation to see how well an information has evolved through different media platforms. We can also use tools that search for algorithms and establishing of a photo or video has been altered in any way online” Vianney explained.

Featuring during the workshop, was a group exercise that got participants researching on assigned topics and exposés, inorder to practicalize their acquired skills.

The over three hours learning session was indeed fruitful, as this participant, Paul Kemafru like many others, expressed satisfaction with regards to the lessons received.

“It has been insightful and awesome. Three hours intensive training on fact checking sources of information online. I must confess that I have learned a lot. For example: for a website you check if it is secured; the hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) if it has an ‘s’ to show that it is secured or not, and also to check the authenticity of other things like Facebook accounts videos and pictures online…” Kemafru remarked.

Draufsicht Bamenda after the one day capacity building, expect journalists in Bamenda and the North West Region at large to make use of the knowledge gained, for the betterment of the society.

The workshop took place Friday February 19 2021, at the main hall of Church Center, Mankon Bamenda, under strict respect of government Covid-19 barrier measures involving, hand washing before entry, wearing of facemasks, and social distancing.

The workshop was attended by over 30 journalists and Draufsicht members.

By Nai Vonna Nubeh