Mokokchung Press Club urges DIPR to combat misinformation through media literacy campaign

• DIMAPUR — Expressing serious concern over what it described as increasing public confusion between professional journalism and unregulated media content, the Mokokchung Press Club (MPC) has urged the state’s Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) to introduce media literacy and ethics initiatives as countermeasures.
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• In a letter addressed to the director of DIPR, the MPC flagged the growing trend of equating content from social media users, YouTubers, and informal online groups—WhatsApp and Facebook groups, and even well-meaning collectives that associate with the term “media”—with the work of professional journalists.
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• “In today’s digital environment, a wide range of actors now produce news-like content, often without attribution, editorial standards, or accountability. While these voices contribute to public discourse, the tendency to equate all content with credible journalism undermines the profession’s integrity and misleads or misinforms the public.
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• “We are witnessing the collapse of public distinction between journalism that upholds fact-checking, accountability, and editorial standards, and content aimed solely at engagement, reaction, or virality, often with little regard for truth or ethics,” the letter read.
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• While digital platforms have democratised access to information, they have also blurred the lines, it stated.
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• Accordingly, it proposed to the DIPR to initiate two specific steps: launch a state-wide media literacy campaign in collaboration with schools, colleges, churches, and civil society organisations to help the public distinguish between factual reporting and opinion, propaganda, or misinformation; and support training, fellowships, and workshops for district-level journalists and local media workers, with a focus on digital verification, ethics, and public trust in journalism.
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• “We stress that this is not a call for censorship but a call for clarity, education, and the protection of the integrity of the press. Journalism must evolve with the times but not at the cost of its principles,” it asserted.

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