The Federal Government will host the 2022 UNESCO Global Media, Information Literacy (MIL) Week to address the growing trend of fake news, misinformation and hate speech.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Friday in Abuja.
He spoke at the inauguration of the Local Organising Committee for the event scheduled for October 24 to October 31.
The theme of the event is “Nurturing Trust: A Media and Information Literacy Imperative.“
The event will be held at Sheraton Hotel Abuja, and would bring together over 193 UNESCO member countries, who will participate physically and virtually.
Nigeria was given the hosting mandate for the the global event last year in Paris, it was learned.
Mr Lai said the decision to give Nigeria the hosting right was a testament to the fact that the country is a known strong advocate of media and information literacy.
The minister said, “In 2013, Nigeria successfully hosted the First Global Forum for Partnership on MIL, tagged: Abuja 2013.
“This forum gave birth to the UNESCO MIL Alliance as well as other initiatives, as part of our collective desire to achieve the Media and Information Literacy for all and by all.
“Nigeria’s contributions towards the birth and the growth of MIL, especially in the West African Sub-Region, played a large role in UNESCO’s decision to offer our country the right to host this event.”
