ISLAMABAD: The Google News Initiative in partnership with Tech Valley on Wednesday launched the ‘Digital Sahafat’ programme to train journalists to produce “accurate and engaging” content and equip them with essential skills to combat misinformation.

The initiative aims to equip 1,000 journalists in Pakistan with essential tools and resources to produce accurate and engaging digital news stories as well as boost their productivity and effectively leverage digital platforms.

At the launch event at a local hotel in the federal capital, Kate Beddoe, Managing Director, News Partnerships, APAC at Google, spoke about how Google was leveraging Artificial Intelligence to create tools that could help journalists.

She spoke about how Google was integrating AI into all their products and how this could be helpful for the news industry, specifically in terms of revenue generation and using tools like Google Reverse Image Search and Pinpoint to sort through and fact-check information.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and State Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima also spoke at the event. The information minister underscored the challenges that misinformation posed to Pakistan’s economy, saying verification and authentication of information had become “the two most important tools” that provided a true perspective on reality.

According to the minister, there is no proper mechanism in place to control the flow of misinformation in the digital landscape, stressing the need for training to combat fake news. Shaza Fatima also highlighted the importance of combating misinformation, terming ‘fake news’ one of the biggest challenges to journalism.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024