IPNEWS-Monrovia: Peter Quaqua School of Journalism (PQSJ), in collaboration with Local Voices Liberia (LVL), a fact checking base media institutions, on Friday, September 16, 2022 hosted a panel discussion on the topic ‘Stopping The Spread of Misinformation and Hate Speech’ at the A. M. Kyne Collegiate Resource Center within the William V. S. Tubman High School Campus on 12th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia.

The event was intended to combat the spread of fake information within the media landscape of Liberia, and it brought to three panelists and over 40 participants comprising of journalists and emerging journalists mainly students from the Peter Quaqua School of Journalism to discuss the spread of Misinformation and Hate Speech, in regards to the threats and dangers it poses to any democratic society.

Misinformation is generally considered as “false information deliberately intended to deceive the audience, while hate speech is a form of attack against a particular group of people, especially on the basis of race, and religion or sexual orientation”.

The three panelists were, Dr. IB Nyei, a Researcher of the Center for Democracy and Development, Atty. Al- Varney Rogers, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Ruth Gbatoe of the Center for Media Studies and Peace building – CEMSEP.

The panelists expanded on the topic regards to the causes and effects of Misinformation and hate speech, to the dangers and threats it poses to any democratic society, and how it can be stop by media practitioners by always fact checking and verifying information for the overall good of the public. By: James Lehmer Hiama, Jr.; hiamajames@gmail.com; 09770334857/0888270604