Nigeria is to host the 2022 Global Media and Information Literacy Week of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The decision was reached at the UNESCO headquarters on Thursday in Paris, France, during a meeting of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, with the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Tawfik Jelassi.

The meeting was attended by the ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO, Hajo Sanni, and other key UNESCO executives.

Mr Jelassi said the Global Media and Information Literacy Week, commemorated annually, is a major occasion for stakeholders to review and celebrate the progress achieved toward media information and literacy for all.

“It is a five-day event with each day having guest lecturers, panels of discussants, keynote addresses, both from the representatives of the political scene as well as academia.

“Other UNESCO commissions across the world and other member states will also plan a national week-long event. We want to make it a global celebration,” Mr Jelassi said.

He said the 2021 edition, which was held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic, marked 10 years since the seeds of Global Media and Information Literacy Week were planted in 2011 in Fez, Morocco.

“This was long before the exponential rise in disinformation, political polarisation, increasing influence of digital platforms and the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Excited that Nigeria would host the global event next year, Mr Mohammed said, “There is no better time to host the event than now when we are daily fighting misinformation and fake news. It is important to our government.

“We are committed to hosting the conference and we believe that there is no better place today in Africa to host this kind of conference than Nigeria. This is because of the challenge of fake news and misinformation posed to the polity.

“It will allow the global community to know that Nigerian media is free,” he said.

(NAN)