Viory and AUB tackle fake news in Africa
June 20, 2024
Viory, the video news agency of the Global South, has deepened its ties with the AUB (African Union of Broadcasting) delivering a series of expert masterclasses to provide journalists working in Africa with the skills they need to ensure the authenticity of their news content.
The online workshops, led by the Viory Verification Team, are the beginning of a programme of activity with the AUB. This forms part of Viory’s mission to share its expertise, straight from the field, to equip journalists from across the Global South with the latest techniques to ensure accurate content in today’s changing and challenging news landscape.
The sessions included:
- The Verification Process: A comprehensive and interactive step-by-step course on video verification.
- Challenges in Newsgathering and Verification in Africa: Using recent news footage from Africa as examples this masterclass took a deep dive into specific challenges to verifying footage in the region. Delving into how newsroom and verification teams can think outside the box, this session focused on challenges with both location and copyrights.
- AI: Advantages and Threats: A session exploring the benefits the fast-evolving world of AI can bring to the newsgathering process, and the potential threats it presents in a world of growing fake news and deepfakes.
Since signing membership of the AUB at the Global Media Congress in November last year, Viory has been sharing the expertise of its market-leading news team to help democratise access to quality and reliable news footage. With more sessions in the pipeline, these masterclasses are only the beginning of Viory and AUB’s work together.
As a key partner, Viory will also be participating in the AUB’s 15th general assembly in Botswana on September 3rd – 5th. More news on this will follow soon.
Jose Jimenez of Viory said: “In today’s climate of social media and instant messaging the spread of fake news and deep fakes is accelerating. As news providers, we must do our utmost to ensure our content is authentic and reliable. Being able to share our team’s expert knowledge with broadcasters across the Continent is a key priority for Viory. The sessions mark the beginning of a wider programme we will be rolling out across Africa through the AUB Network, and we welcome all AUB members who feel they might benefit from masterclasses like these to join us in our future programmes.”
Grégoire Ndjaka, CEO of AUB, added: “Our delegates found these workshops valuable as they look forward to improving their reporting to ensure the curb of fake news in Africa’s newsrooms. I would like to extend our thanks to Viory’s teams for working with AUB for the development broadcasting industry in Africa.”