ISLAMABAD: The subtle distinction between ‘fake news,’ misinformation and disinformation, and its related repercussions should be correctly understood amid the recent outbreak of information warfare, Media Specialist Masroor Gillani said in a special talk on the “Phenomenon of Fake News” held under the auspices of Information Service Academy.

The pertinent seminar attracted a large number of participants from different media outlets, other training institutions as well as government officials here on Friday.

Media Specialist Masroor Gillani ascribed the phenomenon of fake news to psychological, financial and political motives. Mansoor Gillani said that all modern and well-equipped news agencies and media outlets over the years developed a mechanism of fact checking in order to ensure dissemination of factual news.

Mansoor Gillani named Snopes, FactCheck.org, FactChecker, weekly blog from the Washington Post, PolitiFact.com from the St. Petersburg Times and PunditFact as the most advanced fact checking organizations. He added that AFP, AP, Reuters, BBC and other wire services regularly publish Fact Check reports.

Similarly, Pakistani newspapers, such as ‘The News’, ‘Dawn’, ‘Express Tribune’, ‘Daily Pakistan’ and some private television channels published fact check reports or have a fact check section on their websites.

These reports, Mansoor Gillani  said could be studied by trainee officers to enhance their knowledge on evaluation of news item.

The one-hour talk was followed by a 30-minutes question hour session during which Masroor Gillani elaborated on the digital tools of fact checking of reports and photo materials on social media.

At the end of the session, the Diretctor General Information Service Academy presented souvenirs to the guest speaker and participants from other training institutions.

Senior officials from various attached departments of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting attended the special talk.

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