Dubawa Ghana’s recent fact-checking engagements

It has been well over a month since we last let our readers in on our engagements, but we are back to give you a peek into some projects we were involved with while we were away. As duty demands, we have persisted with the fight against misinformation and have increased our capacity and reach – extending this duty to potential and current journalists in Ghana and across the West-African sub-region, by providing them with hands-on training on fact-checking, and equipping them with the necessary skills and tools for it.

In the past month, Dubawa Ghana has facilitated two major fact-checking projects – the Campus fact-checking project and the Kwame Karikari fact-checking and research fellowship – and both projects are underway.

The maiden Campus fact-checking project launched with a three-day training workshop for 20 journalism and liberal arts students across seven tertiary institutions in Ghana. The project is inspired by the need to address some of the ethical lapses identified in journalism practice by offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the ecosystem the opportunity to acquire real-world experience in the journalism profession through verification and fact-checking.

As they readily demonstrated during the training, the students have an unflinching committedness and enthusiasm to counter misinformation and amplify truth and are deliberating on other ways to promote the culture of fact-checking on their campuses.

*Dubawa Ghana team and the maiden cohort of the Campus Fact-Checking project*

Similarly, the 2021 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking and Research fellowship has commenced with 26 fact-checking fellows and 17 researchers and post-doctoral fellows from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Liberia after a two-week long in-person and virtual training programme.

Named after Professor Kwame Karikari, redoubtable media freedom advocate and founder and former executive director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the Fellowship is also inspired by the need to tackle and curb the rapid spread of mis- and dis-information and further expand the art and reach of verified and accurate information to rural and urban societies, to institutionalize a culture of fact-checking across the globe, and to build knowledge around the menace of information disorder in Africa.

*The Dubawa team and some fact-checking fellows*

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This viral image is not of 100km Ghana/Burkina Faso railway line

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Viral image purported to be Accra-Kumasi highway false

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