A special talk by Masroor Gillani, a senior journalist from AFP, Islamabad on the “Phenomenon of Fake News” attracted a large number of participants from different media spheres as well as government officials here Friday.

The interactive session was held under the auspices of the Information Service Academy, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

Gillani who has been associated with the AFP for over a decade, dilated at length on the phenomenon of fake news, defining disinformation, misinformation and fake news, as they should be correctly understood.

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

He named Snopes, FactCheck.org, FactChecker, a 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 The News, Dawn, Express Tribune, Daily Pakistan and some private television channels publish fact-check reports or have a fact-check section on their websites.

These reports he said can be studied by trainee officers to enhance their knowledge of the evaluation of news.

The one-hour talk was followed by a 30-minutes Q&A session during which Masroor elaborated on the digital tools for fact-checking reports and photo material on social media.

At the end of the session, DG ISA presented souvenirs to the Guest speaker and other participants.

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