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As Ghana prepares for its general elections scheduled for December 7, 2024, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has intensified efforts to ensure a safe, transparent, and credible electoral process. Through comprehensive research, capacity building, and collaborative initiatives, we are working to strengthen public trust, enhance media accountability, and mitigate the harmful impact of misinformation and disinformation on the democratic process.
DUBAWA Partners with GIZ for 2024 General Elections
DUBAWA, the fact-checking and verification initiative of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), has expanded its editorial team in Ghana by adding six new members, significantly bolstering its capacity ahead of the 2024 general elections. This strategic enhancement, made possible through support from GIZ, positions DUBAWA Ghana as a key player within the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition and enables a more robust presence in media situation rooms in both the Greater Accra and Northern regions. With these new resources, DUBAWA Ghana is equipped to tackle a higher volume of election-related claims, conduct in-depth, real-time verification, and enhance voter education. Ultimately, this intervention reinforces DUBAWA Ghana’s mission to uphold democratic accountability and ensure citizens have access to accurate, reliable information during the electoral process. This intervention is partly supported by the EPSG Project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and implemented by GIZ.
DUBAWA Ghana remains committed to fostering an informed electorate and supporting credible journalism. With this enhanced capacity, the organisation is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in safeguarding Ghana’s democratic processes during the December elections.
CJID Launches Two Reports on Ghana’s Electoral Process
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) also releases two comprehensive reports on “Citizen’s Perception of the 2024 Ghana General Elections”, which captures findings of surveys conducted to evaluate public perceptions of Ghana’s democracy, focusing on citizens’ participation, political parties, candidates and manifesto, the Electoral Commission, election security, the judiciary, and media influence, and the other on “Information Ecosystems ahead of Ghana’s 2024 Elections: Assessing Misinformation/Disinformation Threats and Patterns, Voter Competence and Media Readiness,” a report that sought to understand Ghana’s information ecosystem ahead of the 2024 elections and media and voter readiness. The findings from both reports affirm Ghana’s democracy’s strengths while identifying critical areas for improvement. The report concludes with actionable recommendations to enhance electoral integrity and ensure comprehensive voter education. It also finds that there is growing AI influence in the digital spaces perpetuated by political actors to spread misleading content. As such, the report recommends media and information literacy for citizens on how to identify and debunk AI-generated misinformation.
Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition
The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition is an alliance of media organisations and fact-checking initiatives working collaboratively to tackle information disorder. The coalition primarily comprises Ghana’s three main fact-checking organisations that are signatories with the International Fact-checking Network: Fact-Check Ghana (Media Foundation for West Africa), DUBAWA GHANA (Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development), and Ghana Fact (FactSpace West Africa). The Coalition also works with prominent civil society organisations, including Africa Check, Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Penplusbyte, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), and Digital Africa Research Lab.
From December 4 through 11, 2024, the Ghana Fact-checking Coalition has been running Media Situation Rooms in Accra and Tamale dedicated to spotting and debunking misinformation, disinformation, and other harmful narratives related to the elections that may emerge on both online and offline platforms across the country.
Key objectives of the Coalition include:
- Real-Time Verification: Monitoring and debunking misleading claims that can influence voter decisions or disrupt peace.
- Public Awareness Campaigns: Promoting media and information literacy to equip citizens with skills to identify misinformation.
- Collaborative Partnerships: Leveraging resources from stakeholders, including election bodies, media, and civil society, to ensure a unified response to information disorder.
Ghana is one of West Africa’s most stable democracies and has conducted regular elections since the 1990s, firmly establishing itself as a model for democratic governance in the region,” said Akintunde Babatunde, Programme Director at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID). “However, we acknowledge the threat disinformation poses to the information space, as it can influence citizens’ perceptions and voting choices. That is why CJID, in partnership with various institutions—including technology companies and electoral monitoring bodies—has deployed 19 electoral and fact-checking experts to ensure that the electoral process remains transparent and credible. We are grateful to our partners for trusting our work, and we remain committed to contributing towards a successful and peaceful electoral outcome.
