In Senegal, PRNigeria Head of Fact-Check, Others Bag Certificates in Investigating Disinformation, Foreign Influence Operation
TECHDIGEST – The Head of Investigations and Fact-Checking at PRNigeria, Mohammed Dahiru Lawal and some selected Journalists in Africa have bagged certificates in “disinformation and foreign influence operation” after a year-long fellowship at the African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI), in Dakar, Senegal.
The year-long AAOSI fellowship which culminated in a capstone workshop in Senegal was organised by the Washington-based International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) with the partnership and support of Kenya-based Code4Africa (CfA) and African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO).
The AAOSI is aimed at equipping journalists across Africa with open source intelligence (OSINT) skills to combat fake news, other information disorder and online influence operations that seek to undermine democracies, public, national, and continental interests.
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Recently, Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, bagged the Golden World Award (GWA) of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) in the Crisis Management Category.
The IPRA honours the frontline multi-award-winning integrated communication agency for its publication “101 Fake News on EndSARS” authored by Dahiru Lawal, the 2021 Best Fact-Checker in West Africa.
The book, which exposes a series of Fake News, especially on social media during and after the 2020 EndSARS protests in Nigeria, had previously won African SABRE Award 2022 hosted by PRovoke Media and endorsed by the African Public Relations Association (APRA) at Dar Es Salam, Tanzania.
Speaking on the fellowship, Dahiru Lawal, a multi-award winning Journalist said, “for me, this is not only career impacting and life changing, but it is also an opportunity to use the knowledge and skills gathered towards the growth of our newsroom so that we can contribute our quota to combat fake news and other online inauthentic behaviours.”
