GOCOP Forms Committee Against Fake News

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), has come out strongly in the battle against fake news with a committee to combat the challenge and deepen professionalism in the industry.

The President of GOCOP, Ms. Maureen Chigbo, disclosed this during a one-day roundtable discussion themed “Media Roundtable: Deepening Media Professionalism through Co-regulation.”

According to Chigbo, there was a need for its members to join forces to ensure that all fake online news and publishers are wiped out from the media space.

“There was the need for all genuine operators in the industry to work together to wipe out charlatans masquerading as online publishers.”

To fully implement this and raise the bar in Online Publishing Chigbo said GOCOP has instituted an “in-house disciplinary committee to deepen professionalism and serve as a means for aggrieved members of the public to seek redress”

This is however coming months after the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, said the fight against fake news has become imperative as the 2023 general election closes in.

Chigbo however called on all participating leaders to team up to prevail on banks and other major advertisers in the industry to deny the fake Publishers adverts and “ channel the same to GOCOP as a deliberate policy to empower the genuine online publishers and make the business self-sustaining.”