The Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace says the Station is ready to work with the Austrian Embassy to tackle disinformation and prevent the distortion of facts between the two countries.
Malam Ndace said this when he paid a courtesy visit to Austria’s Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Guschelbauer in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The Director General said “disinformation create major threats to individuals and society by damaging trust in institutions, creating societal chaos, war and divisions, distorting public policy and programmes.
“Voice of Nigeria is ever ready to partner with the Austrian government to tackle the menace of misinformation as well as disinformation,” he stated.
Malam Ndace re-emphasised the need for programmes content sharing, programmes exchange and joint programme content production with some radio stations in Austria as it would drastically reduce disinformation between Nigeria and Austria.
The Austrian Ambassador to Nigeria, Peter Guschelbauer said; “the world is facing a challenge of disinformation, so it is a global problem not peculiar to one country or region alone.
“We see the increased number of irresponsible actors who engage in misinformation using digital media, and other general social media platforms as well as traditional media to spread misinformation, which is in modern parlance popularly known as “fake news.”
“We are in a situation in Europe, where the peace in Europe has been broken down due to the Russian/ Ukrainian war. In this context, you will have a lot of disinformation also emanating from that source,” he said.
Ambassador Guschelbauer said the disinformation is also spreading in West African region.
He said; “I think working together to tackle the sources of disinformation, the media has an important role to play to ensure that the citizens of our democracy are well informed and having objective view about what is happening in the world so that they can fully participate.”
Nigeria and Austria have formal diplomatic bilateral relations since 1962 with a consulate in Lagos. Nigeria-Austria have mainly focused on deepening relations especially in Economy, Agriculture.
The two countries have mutual understanding on world issues and conduct regular collaborations in socio-cultural affinity.