BUJUMBURA December 16th (ABP) – The media education expert working on behalf of the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa, Mr. Blaise Pascal Andzongo, called on the leaders of youth organizations on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, to more prudence in the practices of consumption, production and dissemination of information, through social media and the internet.
It was said on the occasion of the 2nd day of a training session on media education, which has been held in Bujumbura since Monday, December 13, 2021, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
Starting from the postulate which says that “information saves people and that on the other hand disinformation kills”, Mr. Andzongo rather invites the leaders of youth organizations in Burundi to reflect on the usefulness of information, the veracity of information sources before sharing it with the communities.
According to the expert, this reflex will allow Burundian youth to avoid being carried away or indoctrinated by certain ideologies and not to fall into the trap of disinformation or hate speech.
Furthermore, he noted that hate messages are sometimes disseminated for lack of critical media analysis skills. The UNESCO expert therefore hopes that this training organized for leaders of youth organizations will lead to good results, as has been the case for some countries where this training has already been carried out. He gave the example of Cameroon, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Kenya.
In those countries, he said, the youth with media and information education are increasingly cautious in handling information that is disseminated via the internet and social media, and denounce hate messages and disinformation.
Note that this training will address, among other topics, namely the production of information / disinformation, freedom of expression and hate speech, representations of gender and stereotypes in the media, challenges and opportunities of media and technologies as well as citizen engagement through the media.