Bangladesh minister urges AI fact-checking training for journalists
Yasser Khan Choudhury said reporters must challenge misinformation without drifting into propaganda, as the government moves to widen capacity-building across the country.
Bangladesh’s state minister for information and broadcasting has urged journalists to be more responsible in dealing with misinformation, rumours and AI-generated content spreading on social media. He also said the government is expanding training in AI, fact-checking and multimedia journalism across the country.
The remarks came at a certificate distribution ceremony in Hossainpur Upazila after a three-day training workshop on multimedia journalism, fact-checking and AI for journalists. The event was held at Asaduzzaman Khan Auditorium, with Press Institute Bangladesh Director General Faruk Wasif, Additional Superintendent of Police Mukit Sarker and Hossainpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Rexona Khatun among those present.
According to BSS, Yasser Khan Choudhury said journalists should highlight the government’s mistakes and shortcomings, but should do so through fact-based reporting rather than propaganda or misinformation. He said the aim of the training was to build skills in fact-checking, disinformation and misinformation, and to help journalists play a stronger role in stopping falsehoods from spreading.
He said online smear campaigns have touched even well-known figures in Bangladesh, and that mothers and sisters are being humiliated through misinformation and impersonation, which he described as a violation of human rights. He also warned that some people pose as journalists and spread rumours and false information, while others use AI to distort photographs, create videos and circulate them on social media in ways that damage the reputation of genuine reporters.
The minister said the government is creating opportunities for genuine journalists to take a two-year master’s course, AI-based journalism training and other capacity-building programmes. He added that lists of genuine journalists will be collected through press clubs before journalists are brought into the programmes in phases, and said support is also being provided through the Journalist Welfare Trust.
He said training programmes had already been arranged in the first phase in Mymensingh division, Bogura, Feni and districts around Dhaka, and that the effort would gradually be expanded to all parts of the country. Earlier in July, a separate three-day AI and fact-checking workshop began in Rajshahi under the Press Institute Bangladesh, and UNESCO said in 2024 it had worked with the Ministry of Information on fact-checking capacity-building for journalists.