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UNESCO鈥檚 support for the safety of journalists in Iraq is underpinned by a strong conviction that safety standards in the time of COVID-19 are essential, along with the fight against misinformation
In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, professional news media have acted as a guardian of public interest. They are an important component of the checks and balances that form part of public safety. By fighting disinformation and the misinfodemic and disseminating trusted information to citizens, the news media enables citizen participation in health development and strengthens accountability of feedback mechanisms in the health sector. Citizens cannot be safe in the absence of crucial information and knowledge about the pandemic, which well-trained journalists are better placed to provide.
In this context and in the context of the EU-funded project on 鈥#CoronavirusPandemicFacts 鈥 Addressing the Covid-19 disinfodemic in conflict prone environments鈥, UNESCO Iraq office held the third online training for 40 Kurdish journalists.
In the two-day training, the trainees focused on a range of factors that are transforming the communications landscape, raising questions about the impact and credibility of journalism in such crises.
The training explored UNESCO鈥檚 efforts to develop the basic guidelines for 鈥楩ake News鈥 and disinformation, and to assist journalists in covering news about the pandemic, including in the Kurdistan region.
The training is designed to be used as an entire course or can be used in ways tailored to suit the media landscape and the needs of journalism at the local level.
About the #CoronavirusFacts project:
Based on the central tenet that information is the opposite of disinformation, the UNESCO project #CoronavirusFacts leverages the pivotal role of freedom of expression and access to information to address information needs in times of COVID-19 and to tackle the massive wave of disinformation which threatens to impact democracy, sustainable development and stability around the world. Funded by the European Union, the project which has activities both at the global level, in four regions and in nine countries, supports professional, diverse and independent media鈥檚 capacity to report on the pandemic; strengthens local fact-checking organisations to debunk misinformation; and empowers youth and other citizens to critically process what they read and hear linked to COVID-19 through training in media and information literacy. Due to unprecedented challenges for the media and digital technology sectors, 91麻豆国产精品自拍 created a Resource Center of selected responses to COVID-19.
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