Have same standards for alternative, mainstream media
In the fight against fake news, mainstream news organisations and alternative media platforms should abide by the same professional standards of journalism, while journalists of all stripes should update their fact-checking skills and be trained to provide accurate news.
These recommendations are part of a swathe of countermeasures against fake news that the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods released yesterday.
Professional journalism standards, it said, include ensuring fairness, accuracy and intellectual integrity in reporting, and these standards should apply to both mainstream news outlets and alternative media that only operate online.
To ramp up the training of journalists, the committee urged news organisations, technology companies and institutes of higher learning to consider ways to provide such learning opportunities, like courses and workshops.
The training should include techniques for ensuring accuracy in a new and rapidly evolving digital news environment, it added.
Journalists, on their part, need to "proactively find ways to update their skills in digital fact-checking and arm themselves with knowledge of how online falsehoods and disinformation campaigns work", the committee said.
The committee also proposed a fact-checking coalition of news organisations and industry partners be formed to swiftly and credibly debunk falsehoods.
The group could be made up of media and technology organisations pooling resources and tapping their expertise to fact-check falsehoods quickly and effectively.
COALITION
The suggestion for a coalition was one of several mooted by the 170 individuals and organisations, including SPH, which made representations to the panel.
In response to queries, Ms Han Yong May, editor of SPH's Chinese Media Group NewsHub, said the coalition will help raise awareness and curb the spread of harmful falsehoods that affect Singapore's social and national interests.
Mr Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of SPH's English/Malay/Tamil Media Group and editor of The Straits Times, said: "SPH believes that good journalism, which is credible and trusted by our readers, as well as informed and media-savvy citizens are key answers to the challenge of dealing with fake news. We are glad that our proposals have been taken on board by the committee. We stand ready to work with other media players to contribute to this wherever possible."
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