Lai: We’ve trained officers to battle fake news

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says the federal government has trained information officers to indentify and tackle cases of fake news in the media.

The minister said this at a workshop organised by the office of the national security adviser (ONSA) in collaboration with the Nigeria stability and reconciliation programme (NSRP).

The workshop was tagged: ‘Mainstream strategic communication across government for national security’.

He said considering that technological advances have redefined the media landscape, the ministry is leveraging on various social media platforms to reach its audience, especially the youth.

He said the ministry also developed short videos on government activities and share on our You-Tube channels which are operated by our information officers.

“It is relevant to mention that on 15 December, 2016, we launched a federal government information application as part of strategic communications activities to bridge communication gap and bring our people a click away from government,” he said.

“The resident information officers (RIOs) across MDAs generate contents which are analysed and uploaded on the information APP on a daily basis.

“Faced with the prevalence of fake news we took action by preparing information officers with the skills to identify and counter such fake news through engagement and counter narrative.

“Information officers are assigned to monitor both online and offline news media to identify such fake news and develop timely and credible counter narratives to respond to such fake news.”

Lai, who also heads the ministry of culture, further said the ministry’s mandate to manage the image, reputation and promote the culture of the people and government is centred on the information officers.

“Therefore, the role of information officers is to disseminate accurate and timely information about government policies, programmes and activities,” he added.

“This role ensures that our national image and message is communicated to audiences at home and abroad.”