LETTER | Curbing misinformation by not curtailing information
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LETTER | Malaysia plunged 18 places in the latest ranking of the World Press Freedom Index from 101 to 119 out of 180 countries surveyed, the largest drop of any country in the 2021 edition. This is unfortunate when just a year ago Malaysia made the largest improvement among all countries.
The drop was not merely because other countries’ scores are improving relative to Malaysia’s, Malaysia indeed recorded the second-highest score increase from 33.12 to 39.47 (note that the higher the score in the index, the worse the press freedom is). Malaysia is now placed under the “Difficult situation” category, together with countries such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Palestine.
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A new study on fake news relied on questionable data and biased sources to blame the problem on the right. It also contained critical errors, leaving the accuracy of the results in question.
Research soon to be published in the
American Political Science Review claimed that “Republicans end up sharing more fake news than Democrats do,” according to a statement given to PsyPost by the lead researcher, Mathias Osmundsen. He suggested that this may be “because most mainstream media outlets publish negative news articles about the Republican Party,” while Republicans who wish to share negative information about Democrats “must turn to fake news publishers.”
BIAS! Study Claims Republicans Share More Fake News, Fails to Classify Sites Properly newsbusters.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsbusters.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Imperative of Fact-Checking In New Media Reportage, By Inyene Ibanga
Fact-checking sites and applications abound on the internet for verifying every form of digital content and documents in cyberspace.
Despite massive awareness about the evils of fake news, digital technology provides opportunities for the menace to grow. Hence, it is imperative for media organisations and individuals to painstakingly use fact-checking technologies to verify content before they are shared.
It is not news that a
Daily Independent newspaper story with the headline, “Disquiet As America Places Nigerian Minister On Watch List”, claimed that the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, had been placed on the terrorism watch list of America’s intelligence service.
A view of the Aman Tower which hosts the Centre of Excellence in Journalism in Karachi. Dawn/File
The Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, United States, have signed a partnership to train journalists in Pakistan, it emerged on Monday.
The five-month project, which aims to build fact-checking skills of journalists in the country, includes both self-directed courses and live trainings, the CEJ said in a press release.
It noted that the project would build the capacity of media organisations to verify and fact-check information before it is published, helping raise reporting standards at a time when the fake-news phenomenon is becoming a massive problem .