As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, sensitization and information remain the key weapons through which the population can defeat it. It is therefore prudent that the guardians of information, the Media play their part diligently and protect against fake news and misinformation.
Global information platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have invested heavily in ways to identify and remove fake news before it reaches a wide audience. Even WhatsApp recently provided new means to restrict sharing on information on its platform to many users concurrently.
However, in Uganda we don’t seem to have the same level of vigilance among our media outlets. It has become fashionable to have pundits chat away about the virus. The nature of our pundits many of whom are not even journalists nor specialists in the field have taken on to conspiracy theories to discuss the matter.
Just today, Canary Mugume of NBS TV said that he doubted the figures of infection being given by the Ministry of Health and that he in his wisdom believes that we should have a high number of positive infections for the numbers tested so far.
Whereas he has a right to his opinion, he has no right to spread his euphoria and stupidity to the masses and discredit the thankless work thousands are doing to keep the nation safe. The same Mugume, a school dropout came under fire earlier this week for encouraging people to go out and ahre barbers so as to keep looking good during the lockdown contrary to government advice.
How long do we have to keep up with such imbeciles at a time when sober, responsible journalism is what we need to educate the public and fight this pandemic.
The Uganda Communications Commission has a duty to play in this case. They can’t stand by while misinformation becomes the order of the day.
Many people have said that we are fighting two battles at once, the Covid-19 Pandemic which we seem to be faring well and Stupidity, which we clearly are losing.