{"id":253923,"date":"2020-05-05T03:31:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T07:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=253923"},"modified":"2020-05-05T03:31:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T07:31:10","slug":"free-independent-press-key-to-fighting-covid-19-infodemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/05\/free-independent-press-key-to-fighting-covid-19-infodemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Free, independent press key to fighting Covid-19 ‘infodemic’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“It is the responsibility of media to check facts, to publish the information and in doing so they tackle the infodemic. I think it is fundamental if we don’t want to undermine the level of trust in societies that this independence be respected,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at a virtual high-level dialogue on press freedom and disinformation during Covid-19. (File Photo: Alex Motoc\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has underscored Monday the need to promote a free, independent press to fight the so-called “infodemic” amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.<\/p>\n

“It is the responsibility of media to check facts, to publish the information and in doing so they tackle the infodemic. I think it is fundamental if we don’t want to undermine the level of trust in societies that this independence be respected,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at a virtual high-level dialogue on press freedom and disinformation during Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Azoulay said the government plays a vital role in preventing the infodemic by creating a framework that allows for an independent and free press.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization earlier said it was confronting an infodemic or flood of information about a problem “makes it difficult to identify a solution” and could even spread misinformation, disinformation, and rumors during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

There is so much inaccurate information about the virus, and as such, infodemics can hamper an effective public health response and create confusion and distrust among people.<\/p>\n

Amid the global coronavirus crisis, there is a “dangerous outbreak of misinformation, from harmful health advice and hate speech to wild conspiracy theories,” said UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/p>\n

Guterres said blatant lies spread online at a “terrifying rate,” citing a recent analysis, which found that more than 40 percent of posts about Covid-19 on one major social media platform was posted by bots or automated programs disguised as people.<\/p>\n

“The antidote to this pandemic of misinformation is fact-based news and analysis. It depends on media freedom and independent reporting. And it is rooted in a fundamental tenet: \u2018journalism without fear or favor\u2019,” he said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has underscored Monday the need to promote a free, independent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":253924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253925,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253923\/revisions\/253925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}