By Bose Adelaja

A National Information Officer from the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Dr Seyi Soremekun, Tuesday, urged professional journalists to avail themselves the opportunity of disseminating authentic information by joining the United Nation’s Verified Campaign designed to disseminate authentic information through the mass media.

Speaking at the 2nd day Virtual Media Training for Migration journalists, organised by International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Nigeria.

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He admonished the media to shun negative infodemic being peddled through several channels to discredit evidence-based information especially on Covid-19 Pandemic 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.

Soremekun said it’s high time professional journalists embraced the concept to solidify their journalism skill.

Earlier, 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.

Also, the President, Journalists International Forum For Migration JIFORM, frowned at the rate at which some Nigerians and Africans are being subjected to modern-day slavery in many countries through human trafficking.

He 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. He said, “We are going to explore verifiable information to further counter the deceptive narratives being used to lure millions of Nigerians to start into human trafficking and illicit trade. Facts have proven to the contrary that there is no free money anywhere as being peddled by rumour-mongers,” said Ajibola.

Vanguard News