Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly Abubakar Y. Suleiman has challenges publisher of online newspapers in the 19 northern states to stand against fake news and hate speeches currently dominating the airwaves.
Abubakar Suleiman was speaking at maiden public lecture and award presentation of the Arewa Online Publishers’ Association taking place at Arewa House Kaduna.
The speaker who described himself and the governor of his state as victims of fake news 5 days ago, observed that the trend if allowed to continue portends a great danger to the social and economic development of the country.
In his words “the governor of my state early this week visited my local government for an official function. I went to the border and received him, from where we proceeded to the venue of the event. We finished the occasion and escorted him back to the border and bid him farewell. But, to my surprise few house later, the social media was awashed by the fake news that the governor was stoned in my local government”.
This the speaker said must be checkmated by credible media platforms, the like of those that form the Arewa Online Publishers’ Association in order not to further compound the challenges facing the region.
“We must blow our trumpet. The northern region is under reported. While doing that however, you must uphold the tenets and ethics of journalism” says the speaker.
Chairman of Arewa Online Publishers’ Association Zakari Ahmed observed that the problem of fake news and hate speech fabrication is reaching epidemic proportion, hence the need to raise against this trend.
Zakari Ahmed challenged members of the association to respect all journalistic ethics, which they swore to uphold.
