By Benjamin Nathaniel Bondoc | PNA
BANGKOK — Journalists from member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered here to further strengthen the fight against the prevalence of fake news and disinformation.
The workshop, “Maintaining Credibility and Trust in Journalism”, being held at the Amari Watergate Hotel runs from Thursday to Friday. It aims to give participants the opportunity to share their experiences in dealing with disinformation and explore approaches they may use against fake news, through the sharing of experiences by various ASEAN journalists.
In his speech, Dr. Charoon Chaisorn, Deputy Director-General of Thailand’s Government Public Relations Department (PRD), called on stakeholders to work together in addressing the spread of fake news.
“With a smartphone, you can easily access information at the touch of your fingertips. However, disinformation and fake news may come up in various forms at any time. In this situation, I believe that if we put our heads and hearts together to deal with this issue, we will be able to tackle the spread of fake news and disinformation and handle its negative effects more effectively,” Chaisorn said.
As the Thai government’s main agency tasked to provide accurate news and information, Chaisorn said PRD continues to work with all 20 ministries for fact-checking.
In particular, Chaisorn said the PRD has created Facebook pages, Line accounts and a website under the name “RealNewsThailand” to correct misinformation and ensure that only reliable information is disseminated to the public.
The workshop will cover discussions on the challenges of information disorder in the region and how journalists can help raise awareness in digital literacy to make the Internet safe for all users.
Delegates will also participate in a panel discussion on ways to deal with disinformation and will also share their experiences, knowledge and ideas on the prevention and mitigation of fake news and disinformation.
As an output, the participants will be divided into groups and will exchange ideas on building trust with all stakeholders in the regional bloc. This will be presented in a plenary session that will mark the culmination of the workshop.
Resource persons in the workshop include members of academic institutions, Dr. James Gomez, Chair, Board of Directors, Asia Center; John Nery, columnist from the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Dr. Masato Kajimoto, Assistant Professor, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong; and several Thai media practitioners and representatives of the academe.
The workshop is sponsored by the Government Public Relations Department of Thailand and the Friedrich Neumann Foundation, an international foundation based in Germany that focuses on promoting freedom and dignity for all people in all areas of society.
Thailand sits as the ASEAN chair for 2019 with the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability”.
Aside from Thailand and the Philippines, other ASEAN member states are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam
