By Muammar Hadi Marzuki
GOMBAK, 12 May 2023: A Fact Check journalist from Bernama, Fatin Najmi gave a talk on fact-checking on 9 May (Tuesday) at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The talk was conducted in conjunction with the Communication Festival 2023 organised by the Department of Communication, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS KIRKHS) from 8 to 12 May 2023.
She explained that fake news has three categories that are distinct from one another. They are are misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
“The strategies to combat these fake news include fact-checking, quality journalism, media literacy and media ethics,” she said.
Her team of six people from MyCheck Malaysia has three years of working experience and have produced about 260 fact check reports and all are available on their website. The MyCheck Malaysia initiative was formed by BERNAMA in March 2020.
“We have attended many fact checking courses, training and summits and met with other fact checkers from Bangkok, Hanoi, Singapore, Philippines,” she shared.
Her team’s mission is to combat misinformation that affects the lives and livelihoods of Malaysian citizens which is in accordance with the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) principle.
She showed many examples of fake news online which many people believed and debunked them on their website to show how important it is to not accept news blindly.
“There are a lot of satire pages online that you need to be aware of and not accept blindly like Harakatdaily instead of Harakahdily, Awatni instead of Awani and Bermana instead of BERNAMA,” she stressed.
“Keep calm and read news carefully again as it might be fake news and please don’t share fake news,” she concluded her talk.
The talk continued with a game session and ended with a photography session together with some 30 students and Communication Department lecturers. ***