PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The United States government Wednesday launched the “Fact Check: Critical Thinking Journalism for Youth” program for budding journalists in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Those of us who are watching the crisis in Ukraine unfolding in real time before our eyes these past days have seen how Russian disinformation is being deliberately deployed against the Ukrainian people to undermine their unity and resolve,” the U.S. Embassy/Belmopan Chargé d’Affaires Leyla Moses-Ones said
Washington said that the program provides media literacy training for youth interested in pursuing careers in journalism.
It said that the two-week virtual program aims to promote media literacy and combat the spread of misinformation in Trinidad and Tobago and Belize.
“The inaugural cohort consists of 50 youth participants from Trinidad and Tobago and Belize (and) participants will learn the social and economic impacts of disseminating false information and develop skills to critically analyze media content,” according to a statement issued by the US Embassy here.
The launch was addressed by deputy Education Ministers Dr. Louis Zabaneh of Belize and Lisa Morris-Julian of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Chargés d’Affaires at the US embassies in the two CARICOM countries.
“There are very real consequences to propagating false information online. It incites violence against vulnerable populations, it harms public health efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and most critically, it erodes trust and support in our public institutions, which are the foundations of democracy,” said Shante Moore, Chargé d’Affaires at the embassy here.
