The Journalists International Forum for Migration (JIFORM) has thrown its weight behind the United Nation’s Verified Campaign designed to disseminate authentic information through the mass media at a virtual capacity building workshop organised for some select journalists by the International Organsation for Migration (IOM), Nigeria on Tuesday.
Endorsing the initiative of the UN, the President of JIFORM, Ajibola Abayomi, lauded the global body for coming up with the concept aimed at countering deliberate falsehood being conveyed through fake information process on various media outlets especially on the social media.
Dr. Seyi Soremekun, an officer of the UN had urged journalists to embrace the concept to solidify their reporting while delivering a presentation at the workshop.
He admonished the media to shun negative infodemic being peddled through several channels to discredit evidence based information especially on Corona virus and other migration issues.
The concept was launched by the UN Secretary General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming on May 21, 2020 to better the lots of humanity.
Speaking further, Ajibola added that: “Perhaps, this is why JIFORM is different because we focus solely on migration reportage. We have over 200 journalists across the continents in our fold. I can assure that all our members shall queue into this by signing up to it on the website of UN.
“We are going to explore verifiable information to further counter the deceptive narratives being used to lure millions of the Nigerians to start with into human trafficking illicit trade.
“Facts on ground have proven to the contrary that there are no free dollar or pound sterling in the US, England and Middle East. We were appalled by the rate at which people in Nigeria and indeed Africa are being subjected to modern day slavery in many countries through human trafficking.”
Jorge Galindo, Nigeria IOM Public Information Officer urged journalists to uphold the ethics of the media profession by shunning brown envelop and showed commitment to accurate cum factual reporting by using the right terminologies to report migration issues.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
