Events

The first six months of 2020 have presented the world with an unprecedented challenge – the widespread transmission of Covid-19. Despite that Covid-19 has taken slow roots in Africa, the number of cases is continuously growing. At the same time, disinformation and misinformation, like the disease, are beginning to disseminate across the continent. During the pandemic, the rampant spread of misinformation induced by the considerable uncertainty imposed by Covid-19 has been disconcerting the media landscape since the outbreak of the pandemic. During this period, information itself becomes a matter of life or death. As stated by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), what we are fighting for is not just an epidemic but also an ‘infodemic’, which can hamper an effective public health response and create confusion and distrust among people.

With the advancement in communication technologies, people have taken advantage of timely dissemination through online platforms as both producers and consumers of information. People are spending more time online and searching for information and answers to dispel the anxieties and fears circulating on the uncertainty induced by Covid-19 pandemic.

Since 2011, UNESCO has launched an international, regional, and national interventions on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) that recognizes the primary role of information and media in everyday lives and includes content focusing on critically evaluating the information.

As part of its responses to the Covid-19 ‘infodemic’, UNESCO Abuja Office is organizing a webinar to raise awareness of the roles taken by the young people online, using different social media platforms during this period. This will empower young people to counter and prevent the production and dissemination of disinformation and misinformation, for promotion of peacebuilding and enhancement of the spread of reliable and accurate information.

The webinar is expected to attract various stakeholders, namely government, youth organization, academics, journalists, civil societies, companies and young people in Western Africa who are actively involved or interested in combating misinformation and disinformation.

The key objectives of this webinar include:

• to affirm and further underline the roles and contributions of youth in combating mis- and dis-information on COVID-19 and other related heath emergencies;
• to discuss and propose feasible schemes, especially youth-led interventions, of improving the current media landscape;
• to define the current media landscape in terms of “fake news” around the COVID-19 and present relevant interventions of UNESCO on media and Information Literacy;
• to announce the winners on the just concluded Call for Jingle competition; and
• to present the report of the just concluded survey on The Perception of COVID-19 Communication in West Africa that was carried out.

Panelists

Opening Session

Host: Ydo Yao, Director, UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for West Africa in Abuja

Sunday Dare, Honorable Minister, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Nigeria 

Mohamed Orman Bangura, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sierra Leone

Session 1: Commitment to Combat "Infodemic" on COVID-19 and beyond

Carolyn Wilson, Past Chair of Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL)

Oluseyi Soremekun, National Information Officer, UNIC

Mirta Lourenco, Chief of Section CI/MID, UNESCO

Session 2: Leveraging on Youth Power towards a Peaceful Society Free of Mis- and Dis-Information

Beatrice Bonami, GAPMIL Youth Ambassador, LAC

Osaghae David, Secretary, MILCON

Daniel Nwaeze, Global Coordinator, GAPMIL Youth

Contact:

Olushola Macaulay (o.macaulay@unesco.org)

Useful Links:

• Registration Link

URL:

https://events.unesco.org/event/sessions?id=3919734674&lang=1033