By Mavis Paintsil
The Minister of information, Kojo Opong Nkrumah,launched the 10th Global Media and information literacy (MIL) week, to enhance factual information dissemination.
The annual event, which was instituted by UNESCO, would be commemorated globally on theme: Media information literacy for the public Good, to enhance public Good, to enhance the public education and skills on the effective use of information obtained from the media space. The Minister acknowledged the hard work over the years by Penplusbytes, a non- governmental organisation, UNESCO and other partners.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah noted the event was a major occasion for stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved towards MIL for all.
The minister also continued that with the current exponential rise in disinformation, political polarisation, increasing influence of digital platforms and the covid-19 pandemic, had become more crucial to strive for the dissemination of factual, clear, accessible, and silenced based information.
According to him, human societies were built on language,communication and information, hence those data must possess qualities that were true and relevant within the context and unadulterated saying information goes a long way to frame the narrative of society and shape their attitude.
He added that, the event was was a major occasion for the stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved towards MIL for all.
The minister continued that advanced democracies had given priority to enhancing the education and skills of their citizenry on the effective sourcing for information and their usage.
The Executive Director of Penplusbytes Ms Juliet Amoah, for her part, said, the MIL index showed that the youth, between the ages 15-25, who normally used smart phones were on Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and WhatsApp and often faced cyber bullying and other abuses.
According to her, her organisation had constantly provided training for youth and others including media practitioners to provide information that would protect them from abuses.
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