Basirah training: Libyan media professionals strengthen digital research, fact-checking skills
Thirty Libyan journalists, media professors, students and fact checkers joined a UNSMIL-backed online training session Thursday to sharpen their skills in digital research and verification, as part of wider efforts to strengthen the country’s media sector against the spread of false information.
The Zoom-based workshop was organised by the UNSMIL as part of its Basirah professional development programme. Pamela Kesrouani from the Google News Initiative presented the training, which detailed how to use Google Fact Check Explorer, reverse image search, Google Maps, Google Earth, and fact-check information panels on YouTube.
“These tools don’t do the work for me,” she said. “They just help me. It remains essential for us to check a picture or a news story ourselves before presenting it to the public.”
Concern about the manipulation or fabrication of information, images, audio and video is rising as more people exclusively get their news from social media and the use of artificial intelligence becomes more widespread, Kesrouani said, citing a study published by the Pew Research Center, which found people perceived misinformation on the Internet as a top global threat, second only to climate change.
“Manipulating photos or video — whether by changing context or altering content with artificial intelligence — has become common during wars and natural disasters,” Kesrouani said. “Sometimes even the largest media outlets have used pictures in the wrong context.”
Digital research and fact-checking training is essential for Libyan media professionals, participants said, because of an abundance of rumours, manipulation and a lack of transparency in local media, limited access to original sources, and quickly changing dynamics. They also expressed concern about the impact spreading misinformation and disinformation online on the security situation, by potentially deepening divisions or inciting conflict.
Mahmoud Mukhtar, a fact checker from Tripoli who participated in the training, said he is finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate between authentic content and that created or manipulated using artificial intelligence or other techniques.
“It’s becoming really hard to tell, even for someone who has worked with Photoshop, who knows how AI operates and has had fact-checking training,” he said. “Even using AI to detect AI use is limited in its efficacy.”
Participants, in a post-training survey, said the skills they learnt, such as tips to cross check sources, verify source credibility and spot bias, would help strengthen their work.
“I feel more confident in detecting misinformation after this session because I learnt step-by-step methods to check content,” said Suad Kashlout, a journalist from Zliten. “I now know how to identify red flags more effectively.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
