Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, says he has
suffered in the hands of those who spread fake news
and distort information.
He said this in Lagos on Thursday while speaking at
the 5th-anniversary lecture of News Express.
Adesina said those who consume fake news alongside
those who disseminate it should be punished.
“If anything must worry us as media people or citizens
of any country, it is fake news. Fake news is an
epidemic now,” Adesina said.
“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.”
He also cited the supposed speech to be delivered by
President Muhammadu Buhari at the 72nd UN General
Assembly (UNGA) which went into circulation before
the president delivered his speech.
He, therefore, called on the media and the public to be
wary of fake and hate speech.
“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.
“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.”
TheCable
0 Comments