Lahore (Web Desk): Caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi on Wednesday said that the mechanism for fact-checking will have to be improved in the arena of digital media to counter fake news and misinformation.
Addressing International Media and Communication Conference in Lahore, he said that the year 2024 was the year of elections in different countries including Pakistan, India, Indonesia, United States of America.
The information minister urged the media industry to play a responsible role as its responsibility was to protect the public interest.
“Journalism is primarily about defending the public’s right to know,” Murtaza Solangi maintained.
He said the challenges of the digital age were also great as artificial intelligence, deep fake, voice cloning and misinformation factories have made it difficult to sift fact from fiction.
The minister said that besides the benefits of modern technology in media, there were many risks also involved.
He said that many tasks are being done by using artificial intelligence and voice cloning.
The fundamental principle of journalism was the gatekeeper system to verify the facts but the new media had ignored “the gatekeeper”.
“In the era of artificial intelligence, deep fake, cyber cloning, it has become difficult to bring the truth to people,” Murtaza Solangi said , adding that there is a need to build verification laboratories and newsrooms must create fact-check departments to counter this problem,
“It is necessary to check serious threats of the digital age otherwise truth will become the main casualty,” the information minister said.