The Prime Minister (PM) of the Republic of Korea, Kim Boo-kyum has urged journalists across the globe to acquit themselves creditably in order to win the trust of the citizens.
He noted that people’s distrust of journalism keeps growing due to fake news.
Quoting Thomas Friedman, a world-renowned journalist, he said “The biggest challenge we may face will come from fake news through social media, and healthy communities where people connect, protect, and respect each other will lead to changes under the transformation.”
“Preposterous claims or provocative false descriptions about vaccines were excitedly reported to increase online hits, and induced confusion to make the public uneasy” Boo-kyum stated.
“This situation should never happen again. We all need to think about what is the right conduct for the future of our community, and what role should journalism play.”
Boo-kyum was speaking at the virtual opening of a two-day World Journalists Conference WTC) 2022, hosted by the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK).
He was optimistic that the conference will make a way to create a ‘healthy community’.
The Korea Prime Minister explained that COVID-19 has a significantly negative impact indicating that this disaster aggravates conflicts and inequality between nations and classes.
He said for the past two years, under the COVID-19 crisis, the media has played a critical role in protecting human life by sharing the quarantine system and experience of each nation, stressing that Korea has tided over the crisis of Omicron and slowly recovered its daily life.
Boo-kyum maintained that now, the world faces the Great Transformation of Civilization adding “I think, first of all, journalism needs to stand up and light up the way to overcome all challenges that may come under the transformation.”
Kim Dong Hoon, President of the Journalists Association of Korea in his speech said it is a fact that all journalists are working hard for freedom, peace and disseminate the truth with a warm heart and cold reasoning.
He stated that as distrust in journalism has accelerated since COVID-19, “I anticipate the space given to listen to the efforts made to eradicate “fake news” in each country so that we may jointly introduce and supplement them to realize respectable journalism.”
Mr. Hoon, noted that the event is becoming one of the major journalism events worldwide.
In all about 40 journalists from over 30 countries met to discuss this year’s event held under two themes: “Current Status of Fact-Checking by Global Journalism and the Operation of Media Self-regulatory Organization” on the first day and “A Society Changed by Journalism” on the second day.
The annual event which is marking its 10th anniversary this year has been held since 2013, addressing various themes related to media as well as projections and strategies regarding prominent global issues.
Source Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson, Ghana
