Pirojpur, Barishal, 05 April 2022: Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) organized a two-day-long workshop at the Meeting Room of a local NGO Pirojpur on “Fact-Checking and Verification Techniques on Health Journalism” for an in-depth reporting on important and complex health issues to enhance the professional skills of journalists with the support of The Asia Foundation on 04 & 05 April, 2022.
The purpose of the workshop is to enhance the capacity of journalists working in creating and publishing objective, insightful and influential news on health management; Encourage journalists to acquire knowledge and skills in modern techniques in data verification and presentation in creating neutral and balanced health reports. A total of 25 journalists from national dailies, online news portals, and television channels participated in the training.
Mr. Mohammad Jahedur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Pirojpur was present as the Chief Guest at the inaugural session of the workshop; Mr. Alhaj Md. Habibur Rahman Malek, Mayor of Pirojpur Municipality was present as a Special Guest and Mr. Md. Hasnat Yousuf Zaki, Civil Surgeon, Pirojpur presided over the session.
At the beginning of the workshop, the goals, objectives, context of the workshop and what challenges are being faced in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how to keep pace with the current technology era are discussed. Mr. Abu Rushd discussed other issues of the workshop. Ruhul Amin, Senior News Editor, Banglavision. The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of journalists working on creating, publishing and disseminating objective, insightful and influential news on health management. As well as encouraging journalists to acquire knowledge and skills in modern techniques in verifying, sorting and presenting information to create impartial and balanced health reports.
The workshop focused on health journalism in the current context; Security of journalists through social media; Preventing and dealing with misinformation, disinformation and rumors in health reports; In health-journalism, reliable sources of information and techniques and means of verifying information; In the context of Bangladesh, information verification and consideration of health management issues in the report – etc. are discussed.
Mr. Mollah Azad Hossain, Additional Superintendent of Police, Pirojpur was present as the Chief Guest at the concluding session of the workshop. Verification of information is an important issue and we should report on the issue after proper verification and authentication of the issue.
Special Guest Mr. Bashir Ahmed, Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Pirojpur Sadar said In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we have to do something about this. Journalists are the enlightened people of society. They have to work with responsibility toward the development of society and they have to make the report informative by verifying the authenticity of the information.
At the concluding session of the workshop, Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC, highlighted the challenges of fast-changing realities, the speed and flexibility of its multifaceted impacts and the benefits as well as the importance of reporting in the light of the topics discussed in the training. At the end of the workshop participants are given a certificate.
Mr. Ziaul Ahsan Zia, Trustee of BNNRC and the Executive Director of Pirojpur Gono Unnayan Samiti, discussed how to implement the educational topics of the workshop and how to improve the situation by reporting on the challenges of the health system. Note that Pirojpur Gano Unnayan Samity was responsible for the management of the training.
The training program focused on health journalism in the current context; reliable sources of information in health journalism; information verification techniques and media monitoring techniques for misinformation, disinformation and mal-information in health reporting published through social media; and, promoting health governance in Bangladesh.
It is hoped that the workshop will enable journalists to be more diligent and sensitive in verifying information to produce impartial and balanced health reports. Besides, the journalists are encouraged to use various modern techniques in presenting the data collected for the report.
BNNRC is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accredited with World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), SDGs Media Compact of the United Nations, and UN WSIS prize winner 2016, Champion 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. BNNRC’s approach to media development is both knowledge-driven and context-sensitive, and it takes into account the challenges and opportunities created by the rapidly changing media environment in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
