Fact-checking platform, Dubawa, has entered into partnerships with Coalition for Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Star FM Ghana and GhanaFact in a bid to combat election related false information ahead of the 2020 elections in Ghana.
The partnerships, mainly for the coverage of the elections, also include a collaboration with some Ghanaian bloggers who have pledged to propagate fact-checked information.
On December 7, Ghanaian electorates will vote to elect their next president and Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them in the next four years.
In the course of this exercise, tons of election related information and false information will unarguably be in circulation.
In an effort to tackle these false information, Dubawa Ghana, which birthed in Ghana in 2019, wedged these affiliations to strengthen its resource base.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Dubawa and CODEO indicates that the latter would incorporate the fact-checking platform into its incident reporting desk and provide information as required to Dubawa.
CODEO is an independent and nonpartisan network of civil society groups, faith-based organizations and professional bodies which observe Ghanaian elections. It’s deployed observers are expected to have access to polling units, provide information from the field and provide verification when required.
In its agreement with Star FM, a radio station in Accra, Ghana, both parties agree to co-publish fact-checks done by Dubawa among others.
An MoU signed by both parties earlier in the December reads, “Starr Fm will assist in the researching of claims and forward to Dubawa suspicious claims that need to be verified and vice versa.
“The parties will produce fact-cards bearing both Dubawa and Starr FM’s logos for dissemination on various platforms when material produced by either party is used by the other.
“Starr FM will use Dubawa’s content without undue alteration unless otherwise agreed and vice versa.”
Similarly, a partnership between Dubawa and GhanaFact would allow a ‘cross-publication of fact-check reports/multimedia content by the two organisations without any modification’ by both parties.
Collaboration with bloggers
Earlier in October, Dubawa with support from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) hosted a two-day workshop with 10 leading Ghanaian bloggers.
At the end of the workshop, which focused on basics of fact-checking, tools for verification, journalism ethics and legal implication of propagating false information especially in relation to elections, the bloggers pledged to promote accountability, transparency and accuracy in reporting the elections.
They agreed to collaborate with Dubawa to identify viral misinformation and share verified or fact-checked information by Dubawa on their various platforms, including social media disinformation ahead of, during and after the elections
Why the collaborations?
Dubawa Ghana Editor and Programme Officer, Caroline Anipah is optimistic the collaborations will create efficiency and expand the reach of the partners.
“We believe we cannot do everything alone and by ourselves. We hope that with the partnerships we have, we will be able to do a lot more, work more efficiently and get verified information across to a lot more Ghanaians than if we had been working alone,” she said.
