The Online Publishers Association of Nigeria (OPAN) has announced Wednesday, January 16, 2019 as the date for its 3rd Annual New Media Conference, which will hold at the Sandralia Hotel, Abuja.

The theme of the conference is: “Free Press and Objective Reporting in the 2019 Election year”.

In a statement made available to the media on Wednesday, and signed by its President, Mr. Austyn Ogannah, OPAN stated that the one-day conference will provide an interactive platform for New Media practitioners – publishers, bloggers and social media influencers, to engage with government and state institutions on issues bothering on Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for Reporting Elections, Ethics and Professionalism in Reporting Elections in Nigeria and the independence and media literacy of the judicial system.

Other issues to be explored according the OPAN President, are Conflict Sensitiveness and Hate Speech, the Dangers of Fake News in a multi-ethnic society in an Election Year, Digitally reporting election results, the Social media and INEC rules, among other topics.

Mr. Ogannah said key government personnel from the presidency, legislature, judiciary, as well as representatives of civil society groups, business sector, political parties, diplomatic community, foreign and local press and stakeholders are scheduled to participate at the conference.