YMCA Official Wants Journalists Engage In Fact-Checking, Counter Fake News

 By Sylvester W. Korwor, Bong County Correspondent

GBARNGA Aug. 29 (LINA) – The Coordinator of the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) Liberia, in Bong County, Stanley T. Nyeekpee has encouraged Liberian journalists to cultivate the culture of fact-checking as a means of minimizing fake-news thus promoting peace, national reconciliation and development.

Speaking at the opening session of a two-day intensive training in the areas of reconciliation, advocacy and facts finding in Gbarnga, Bong County on August 28,2024, the YMCA Liberia Bong County Coordinator admonished participating journalists to see their role in society as cardinal in the process of national reconciliation and development.

Mr. Nyeekpee maintained that if journalists across the country are given requisite priority to fact checking, it will minimize the issue of fake news circulating in the public, which according to him, will help maintain peace in the country.

He wants journalists as they sit for the two days training, go beyond what they merely come across on the social media and headlines of other media outlets and do proper investigation or fact finding thereby minimizing conflict in society.

The YMCA official disclosed that the training is part of YMCA Liberia Civil Peace Service Project with support from Bread for The World, which according to him is an annual activity that contributes to media empowerment implemented in four counties including Margibi, Bong Lofa and Nimba respectively.

Speaking on behalf of participating journalists, Moifee Flomo of Super Bongese Radio in Gbarnga, urged his colleagues to take the training seriously, and consider themselves ambassadors of peace and reconciliation through the dissemination of information.

However, Flomo outlined several challenges faced by rural journalists and institutions, pointing out the lack of stable electricity and mobility to enable reporters to reach out to sources when there is a need to carry out proper facts checking and investigation.

Nevertheless, Flomo assured the organizers of the workshop that as they benefit from new skills in facts checking, reconciliation and advocacy, they are under obligation as professional journalists to use their respective platforms to propagate the truth using only the facts.