Young people do not need to be empowered; they need the tools, training and opportunity to use the power they already possess, veteran journalist Caroline Faraj told Gulf Times. Speaking on the sidelines of CNN Global Perspectives, Faraj said the real responsibility of institutions, educators and media organisations is to equip young people to think critically, verify information and speak for themselves. “I’m always against the term ‘empowering’,” she said. “You don’t need to be empowered. I enable you, upskill you and support you, but I don’t empower you because you are so powerful.” For Faraj, the distinction is more than a matter of wording. Young people, she argued, should not be treated as though their strength must first be granted by others. What they need instead is access to knowledge, practical skills and opportunities that allow them to use that strength with confidence. “You can reflect your power and your knowledge,” she said. “You can put your cards on the table and people will come and respect everything you say. Giving you the chance by enabling you is way more important than speaking on your behalf.” That idea becomes particularly important, she said, at a time when young people are navigating an information environment in which distinguishing fact from misinformation can be increasingly difficult. “When you enable somebody and you equip people properly, then you give them the chance to find the fact themselves,” Faraj said. “I don’t want to force the fact on you.” Instead, she said, training and access to the right tools can help young people reach their own conclusions based on verified information. “When I train you and I offer you all the training and I enable you and you have the tools, you will be able to find the truth and you will also be able to reflect the truth.” Faraj said technology has given younger generations access to information and communication tools on a scale that would have been difficult to imagine in previous decades. But she stressed that technology alone does not guarantee informed participation.“The technology, the upskilling, the training that we are offering, and also the youth and the strength and the power of youth, all of them as one formula can do miracles,” she said. Faraj said young women, in particular, should be encouraged to communicate their own experiences rather than always have others interpret or speak for them. “You are the best person to tell your own story,” she said. “I can tell you lots of stories on your behalf. I’m not credible like you are telling the story.” She added that storytelling is not limited to words. “Sometimes you don’t need to talk about it. Your facial expressions, your eyes, the way you talk, the way you look at me, all of this is telling stories.” For Faraj, helping young people develop confidence in their own voices must therefore go hand in hand with teaching them how to question information and establish what is factual. She identified fact-checking as one of the most pressing challenges facing journalism and audiences across the region and beyond. “One of the challenges that I personally believe that we’re all facing in this part of the world and other places as well is fact-checking,” she said. The answer, she argued, lies in strengthening people’s ability to verify information rather than simply asking them to accept what they are told.
