LAHORE: Caretaker Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi said that mechanism for fact-checking will have to be improved in arena of digital media to counter fake news and misinformation.

Delivering his speech at 2nd International Media and Communication Conference here, he said that year 2024 was year of elections in different countries including Pakistan, India, Indonesia and United States of America.

He urged media industry to play responsible role as its responsibility was to protect public interest. “Journalism is primarily about defending public’s right to know,” Murtaza Solangi maintained.

He said challenges of digital age were also great as artificial intelligence, deep fake, voice cloning and misinformation factories have made it difficult to sift fact from fiction.

He said that besides benefits of modern technology in media, there were many risks also involved.

He said that many tasks are being done by using artificial intelligence and voice cloning.

Fundamental principle of journalism was gatekeeper system to verify facts but new media had ignored “Gatekeeper”. In era of artificial intelligence, deep fake, cyber cloning, he said it had become difficult to bring truth to people, Murtaza Solangi opined.

He said for countering this problem there was need to build verification laboratories and newsrooms must create fact-check departments. He said it was necessary to check serious threats of digital age otherwise truth will become main casualty.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 25 2024

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