Fake News: Insight Initiative welcomes Osun Committee, Advises Adeleke-led Govt

The Insight Initiative for Community and Social Development, a nonprofit organization in Osogbo, welcomes the setting of Action Committee on cyber crimes and cyberbullying by the Osun State Government under the leadership of Senator Ademola Adeleke.

We welcome the development as we believe that the media space in the state should be sanitised and made secure for all stakeholders in the state to feel safe. The need to halt the torrent of fake news circulated in the media space can not be more urgent than now.

However, we want to call on the government to ensure the committee is peopled with persons of impeccable character, integrity, and most importantly, understanding of the ethics and professional workings of the media. We advise that the panel should be a tripartite committee that will consist of Civil Society Organizations, media practitioners, and representatives of relevant agencies of the government (including security agencies).

We also urge the state government to ensure that the terms of reference of the committee are made public and the committee should not be a substitute for the court of law as that may later be counterproductive.

The dealings of the committee must be transparently conducted and devoid of any bias or preferential treatment.

Signed
Jare Tiamiyu
Executive Director, Insight Initiative for Community and Social Development