These days, with the advent of social networks and blogs, every citizen yearns for information as mentioned in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

By virtue of this right, some citizens may sometimes tend to disseminate information without respecting certain rules of journalism that we will recall later.

 

It's worth indicating that elections are a time:

- to assess the state of the country at all levels (health, education, safety, etc.)

- to evaluate what changed and what didn't since the last election

- to monitor public opinion

- to review the promises that candidates had been making

In the run-up to elections, it goes without saying that we citizens, like the journalists whose job it is, must be very responsible in our dissemination of information.

 

Here are some rules to follow:

- To inform

- To explain

- To be reasonable and, above all, neutral

- To be independent and honest

- To be accurate and to verify any information before releasing it

To this we can add : to act as watchmen (watchdogs, lol)

 

During that period a lot of rumors, propaganda and false information circulate.

So how do you know whether what you see online is true?

Here are some tools to debunk the myths and manipulations.

share.america.gov/is-what-youre-seeing-online-true

verificationhandbook.com/book

 

In summary, freedom of expression has some rules that every web citizen must respect.

 

[Translated from a contribution by Cyriac Gbogou]