As Malawi gears up for the September 16 General Election, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has urged journalists to play a responsible role by avoiding the spread of fake news during the campaign period.
MEC’s Director of Media and Public Relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, appealed to media trainings on election reporting held for journalists from Mangochi and Lilongwe on Saturday and Monday, respectively.
The trainings, organised by Gazette Media, aim to equip journalists with skills to responsibly report on the electoral process.
“It is time you started questioning some of the promises politicians make. Some of the information the politicians send is deliberately meant to misinform people, and we must take them to task, and not help them to spread the fake information,” Mwafulirwa said.
One of the Lilongwe participants, Zephaniah Nungu of Nkhoma Radio commended MEC for the training.
“We have refreshed our minds on our duty during this crucial period. Sometimes we neglect our duties as the media and help to spread fake news. People trust everything they hear from us, so we need to up our game and verify information before sending it across to the audience,” he said.
The training also equipped journalists with knowledge of the polling system and processes, dispute resolution and election malpractices, and the MEC briefed the participants about the Electoral Management Devices (EMD) sourced from the Smartmatic company.
Sessions for journalists from the Northern Region are scheduled for Wednesday, with those from the Southern Region set to attend on Saturday this week.
