Journalists have been urged to always validate information circulated on social media before using it as their sources of news.
Speaking during a journalists’ training forum from Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi and Meru Counties at a Meru Hotel Thursday, Head of Training at the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) Ms. Christine Nguku told participants that social media is full of all enticing information that might seem to be factual when in actual sense it was fake.
Nguku said the world is currently being faced with the biggest challenge of fake news that calls for scribes to crosscheck before going with it as news to avoid legal reprisals.
She said MCK would be launching intensive training targeting all those working in various media houses in order to safeguard the reputation of journalism as a profession.
“We are going to come up with a new format of training and participants may even be required to pay for the exercise. We will start off with colleagues who have never been trained as journalists because they need to be sensitized about the code of conduct and even just basics in the profession,” noted Nguku.
The head of training added that all those working in the media industry among them comedians ought to be trained on how to come up with content to help safeguard the profession.
Nguku said MCK had received complaints about some misconduct across media houses, hence the need to ensure everyone media personnel is trained.
However, she added that only accredited persons would be allowed to practice in the media industry, while urging all journalists to ensure they were enlisted with MCK.
On his part, the officer in charge of Research and Media Monitoring at the Council Abraham Kisang advised media content providers to embrace diversity in their programming so as to meet the demands of their audiences.
by Richard Muhambe
