The acting Director of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Africa Office, Pa Louis Thomasi, is bemoaning the rate at which fake news is taking centre stage in the noble journalism profession.
Using Ghana’s case where it was reported that seven CEOs have been sacked by government because of their age and mainstream media houses to fall for it in publication.
Speaking at the IFJ Strategic Union Building Workshop on the theme Digital Economy and African Journalists’ Unions; Developing Strategies for Survival and Sustainability, Mr Thomasi says time has come for journalists who perpetrate fake news to be exposed.
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The workshop brought together journalists from Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Somalia, Angola, Botswana and Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the President of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Christopher Isiguzo, is calling for legislation by governments across Africa to criminalize the fake news in order to deal with perpetrators and to help stop creating fear and panic in people.
However, an Executive Member of IFJ, Omar Faruk Osman, who is the Secretary General of the National Union of Somali Journalists, cautions that whilst the measures should be put in place to curtail fake news, a conscious effort should be made in order not to use as a proxy to suppress freedom of expression.