ISIC, UNESCO partner to promote media literacy among wider public

The Higher Institute of Information and Communication (ISIC) in Rabat planned a number of events in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to commemorate the World Media and Information Education Week.

The event tackled modern issues of media literacy in a digital era, particularly false information and its massive rise in the Covid-19 pandemic with resulted in an infodemic.

This edition, which runs from Monday, October 24 through Sunday, October 28, has as its focus on “Nourishing confidence, an imperative of media and information literacy.” 

ISIC’s director, Abdellatif Bensfia, announced the inauguration of the event and explained that such initiatives aim to create a critical public in a digital era.

The director of Rabat’s UNESCO bureau, Eric Fallat, who just took this position three weeks ago, was present at the event.

According to the UNESCO official, the general public should be able to trust and depend on the media to supply him with credible news, which is why this “celebration,” as he described it, will tackle the fear of false information and disinformation as well as the barometer of this trust.

All of the participants in this week’s events, according to Fallat, will need to exercise their critical thinking skills in relation to media and information.

The UNESCO official stated that “We have all seen the problems with information providers, which has raised concern in our organization to the manipulation of citizens and disruption of events like elections due to media and information related issues,” adding that governments, media organizations, and communication companies should help combat these issues by taking action and tackling them effectively.

Mgharfaoui Khalil, the institute’s director of studies told Hespress EN that this week comes in celebration of the international day of education and information.

“This is a partnership between UNESCO’s bureau in Rabat and Media Research and Education Center (CREM) based at ISIC,” said the professor.

This initiative, as explained Mgharfaoui to Hespress EN, aims to train students in issues related to the use, interpretation, and production of media content and especially on misinformation and disinformation.

Additionally, it will increase the participants’ understanding of information and communication tactics, their underlying concepts, and how specific news is produced, particularly fake news.

“On Wednesday we will train the students on fact-checking which aligns in the same direction with the other goals, and on Friday we will extend the training to middle school teachers on media education,” declared Mgharfaoui.

UNESCO and ISIC had ongoing collaborations for years.

This year’s Global Week of Media Education and Information is focused on building trust and community among individuals, the media, digital platforms, governments, the commercial sector, and non-governmental organizations.

It highlights some promising actions related to media and information literacy over the past year, as well as how media and information literacy contribute to building trust and combating distrust.

The official program contains the following activities: 

Training in media and information education, production workshop in “media and information education”, a training workshop on “fact-checking”, a training workshop on media and information literacy, and a workshop for the benefit of college students and teachers from the cities of Rabat and Sale.