New Delhi (EFE).- The president of the EFE Agency, Gabriela Cañas, and the general director of the Indian agency PTI, Vijay Joshi, highlighted in New Delhi their verification work against hoaxes in times of high political polarization.
“We live in a very important political polarization, social networks immediately report everything without checking the data, and I think a voice of greater reflection is needed,” Cañas said during a meeting with Joshi this week in India.
Cañas defended the verification work as “an obligation” and a “duty” for news agencies such as EFE and PTI, and at the same time as an opportunity to generate additional income.
As an example of initiatives against disinformation launched by EFE Verifica, the data verification team of the EFE Agency, is “VacunaCheck”, which in collaboration with pharmacies in Spain combated hoaxes about coronavirus vaccines.
For his part, Joshi pointed out that “verification is much more than an economic issue, it is an essential part of who we are (…) we highly value accuracy and when we see so much misinformation in our environment, it becomes our task to counter incorrect news ”.
clear stereotypes
In India, this problem includes fake news, which can trigger community and religious tensions, Joshi explained, while Cañas stressed that in Spain one of the main challenges are hoaxes that “try to generate racism.”
“Clearly it is the rejection of the immigrant, and I think that in the end it is permeating people, especially in a country like ours, with very high levels of unemployment where people see that the immigrant can take their job,” pointed out the president of EFE, who also mentioned Russian propaganda as a challenge.
Both directors pointed out that EFE and PTI, expanding their current collaboration and through their informative work, can also help clear up stereotypes about India and Spain.
“If we have some kind of news exchange, it can help clear up the stereotypes we have about each other and I confess that for most Indians, the stereotype about Spain is flamenco, bullfighting and the tomatina, reflected for a Bollywood movie,” Joshi said.
Cañas, for his part, explained the greater interest from Spain in the Indian economy and technology, as well as the culture of this plural Asian country with more than 1,300 million inhabitants that hopes to surpass China as the most populous nation in the world.
