Ibadan: The Publisher of Newspeak Magazine, Mr Bisi Oladele, has called on online media operators to collaborate to tackle the challenges of fake news in the country.
Oladele advised while delivering a lecture during the launch of DailyOpen News, an online media in Ibadan on Thursday.
The lecture is entitled “Role of Online News Publishing and National Development”.
He said that online news publishing has both benefits and disadvantages, which can be addressed through collaboration and regulation.
According to him, the public is fed fake news by online news operators who prioritise their business survival over the country’s safety and development.
Oladele alleged that online news publishing, as a critical pillar in Nigeria, was not doing enough due to the weak gatekeeping aspect of journalism.
“Digital news publishing faces some challenges in Nigeria because professionalism is endangered.
“There is also the lack of trust, half-truth publication, no in-depth content, and a lack of investigation, among others.
“Online media platforms must play their roles professionally to tackle these challenges for us to have a society we all desire.
“Government needs to come up with specific regulations because cybersecurity can’t regulate the operations of online news media,” he said.
He, therefore, called on operators to collaborate in promoting professionalism and building trust to survive in the business.
According to him, operating a one-person show isn’t an easy task.
“The era of working in isolation is gone in online news publishing; it will be difficult to survive in the business.
“No matter how brilliant you are, collaboration will encourage survival,” Oladele said.
He commended DailyOpen News for assembling a group of professionals to manage the platform.
Mr Seye Ojo, one of the news platform’s consultants, said it was established to sanitise the sector, while providing Nigeria and the world at large with credible news.
