NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE
News agencies must work together to develop an effective mechanism to verify the accuracy of the information and thus fight off any attempts to spread fake news, TASS First Deputy General Director Mikhail Gusman said when speaking at the international conference on the role of news agencies in time of crisis held in Sofia, BelTA has learned.
“Today there is a lot of pseudo information, attempts to spread certain news. I think we stand at the threshold of big problems in this regard. These bogus news can easily cause a collapse of banks or other important institutions. We have seen hacker attacks on the most secure and powerful institutions. But it is just the beginning. The main problems are still ahead of us,” Mikhail Gusman said.
In this connection, the value of reliable information from a reputable agency raises manifold, said Mikhail Gusman. “We need mechanisms to promptly verify the information whether it is fake or not. Meanwhile, we are not protected from such information attacks,” he said.
During the discussion, the participants of the conference raised the topic of coexistence and interaction of traditional media and social networks.
According to Mikhail Gusman, social networks are not a competitor for mass media. “This is the new reality that all media outlets need to analyze thoroughly and understand. Mass media, particularly news agencies, must distance themselves, to a certain extent, from social networks. We will only benefit from this. Social networks are always anonymous and virtually uncontrollable. So is the information published there. We, the news agencies, on the contrary, are responsible to society for what we publish, and we cherish our reputation,” Mikhail Gusman noted.
