- Femi Adesina, says peddling of fake news has become a major issue in the country
- The spokesperson of President Muhammadu Buhari wants both carriers of fake news and its consumers sanctioned
- Adesina laments that fake news now sells more in Nigeria
Femi Adesina, spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed how tasking his job is saying he had truly suffered in the hands of fake news carriers in the country.
He accused some news carriers of distorting information as he spoke on Thursday, September 28 at the fifth anniversary lecture of the News Express.
Adesina proposed that those who consume fake news should also be guilty and punished just like those who carry such news.
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Adesina said: “If anything must worry us as media people or citizens of any country, it is fake news. Fake news is an epidemic now.
“But it is not just the purveyors of fake news that should be sanctioned, even the consumers of it are guilty because statistics have shown that the world consumes fake news more than true news. I saw those statistics online while doing a research.
“I have suffered a lot from those who twist information. Our president came back August 19 and we said on 21, he was going to broadcast.
“We said the broadcast was 8am. Suddenly someone went online and said the broadcast has changed to 7am which had no truth in it at all.
“And you know, many people believed the change so a lot of people missed the original broadcast.
“That same day people began to call to ask if there was a public holiday. It turned out that it was Kogi state that declared public holiday and someone went online to say it was national.”
Another example, according to Adesina, concerned the speech that was to be delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari at the 72nd UN General Assembly (UNGA).
A fake copy of the speech went into circulation before the president even had the opportunity to make his presentation at the event.
“I only read the first two paragraphs for me to know it was false because I had seen the original,” he said.
“And closely linked to fake news is hate news. Hate news is that piece of information that is meant to cause odium, discord and know that there are some people who do it almost professionally.
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“As professionals and even as consumers of media messages, we must learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.
“People love to either convey fake news or twist what has been said. Their intention is to cause disharmony in the country and we have to watch it,” he said.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari’s move to promulgate a law against hate speech received public support from Doyin Okupe, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The former presidential aide made his comments while speaking as a panelist at the Vanguard Conference Hall on Hate Speech, on Monday, September 25.
Watch this video and hear why some Nigerians think Atiku Abubakar is a better option in 2019:
Source: Naij.com
ROSY CREST
Friday, 29 September 2017