UNESCO organized a Training-Of-Trainers course to counter media misinformation and enhance the safety of journalists
UNESCO Iraq office held an online Training-Of-Trainers course, with the participation of 20 trainers including female journalists.
The training course was organized under the” #CoronavirusFact project to tackle the outbreak of COVID-19 in conflict-prone environments, funded by the European Union.
The three-day online training course aimed at providing 20 trainers with the safety measures of the COVID-19 pandemic and tools for fighting misinformation, to be used later to train 1000 journalists in the period of six months.
Over three days, Participants received training on a range of cases by experts on safety of journalists, Misinformation and Fact-Checking tools (FCT), and how to conduct more effective trainings on pandemic cases, policies, finance and adaptation, in a session on The Role of Media in Covering the COVID-19 Outbreak.
On day two, the session revolved around misinformation, reports, recourses, and training tools amid the pandemic, followed by detecting and reporting COVID-19 in a better way, and who determines the levels of misinformation associated with the pandemic.
A full day training workshop was held on the third day, studying the role of fact-checking tools to tackle fake news during COVID-19. The participants completed the pre-test and the dimensional test of the training, to refine the skills of the trainees and ensure they will be able to train the journalists according to the project’s main specific objectives. In recognition of the growing threats facing journalists in the field.
UNESCO has provided more capacity-building activities over the past month, based largely on journalists’ reactions and their networks with more than 1,700 members to work towards achieving the projects goal, supported by the European Union fund.
The TOT Safety Training provided participants with a better understanding of the threats they are likely to encounter. Physical attacks and verbal abuse, or online risks related to false information. The journalists shared their experiences dealing with safety and security challenges. The security experts who led the three-day sessions, offered advice on how they and their colleagues can protect themselves in a better way.
The training was concluded with a discussion on how to conduct local TOT with their partners in order to obtain the skills and tools needed to be able to develop resources within their networks and organizations.