By: Ilyasa Baa
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) is going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the election management bodies like the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC).
SLAJ will set up what it referred to as Super News Room and recruit Fact Checkers to identify hate speech and false information about the forthcoming elections. It will also help in promoting women candidates to increase their chances in these elections.
President of SLAJ, Ahmed Sahid Nasrallah aka the Monk said the Association is trying to do its best to eradicate hate speech and the use of social media to spread misinformation about the electoral processes. He said the Super News Room will serve as a fact checker to debunk fake news ahead of these elections.
“Misinformation was responsible for the August 10th chaos, Makeni and Prison incidences”, he said, adding the capacity of the Association has been boosted to deal with misinformation for the benefit of the general public.
He said they are monitoring and fact checking social media contents round the clock to ensure that credible information reaches members of the public.
He said political parties will be brought on board to ensure that they use the platform to spread credible information about their activities.
The setting up of the Super News Room has been a welcoming news as citizens need credible channels of information about the multi – tier elections considering the high spate of misinformation circulated in the country.