Two NGO’s Raise Hope For Fight Against Misinformation In Africa

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – FactSpace West Africa, one of the leading fact-checking organisations in Africa and AW Free Foundation, a non-profit organization, have entered into a new partnership with the aim of intensifying the fight against misinformation, disinformation, fake news and propaganda across Africa.

FactSpace West Africa is an independent, non-partisan organisation working to tackle misinformation, disinformation and propaganda across West Africa. The organization is a leading fact-checking initiatives in Ghana and The Gambia and a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Code of Principles.

Aside from ensuring ready access to credible information, FactSpace also helps in increasing public knowledge across West Africa, train the sub-region’s youthful population and grow a budding community of fact-checkers.

Similarly, AW Free Foundation was primarily founded by AfricaWeb, one of the biggest publishers in Africa, to promote professional journalism, independent media and freedom of expression in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The organisation currently operates operations in Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania and Togo among others, using technology, innovation and skills to support media under threat, promote open technology and uncensored media tools and toolkits for journalists.

The partnership seeks to leverage on AfricaWeb’s reach of 4 million multilingual visitors per month across three regions of Africa and its wide network of multilingual journalists to verify, fact-check and widely publish verified information in multiple languages across Africa.

FactSpace West Africa and AfricaWeb platforms across West, Central and East Africa would introduce newly developed digital features that would, among others, rate the accuracy of information including claims by public officials, institutions etc.

Among other activities, FactSpace West Africa and AW Free Foundation would organise fact-checking training for journalists, whistleblowers, CSOs and the general public to develop their fact-checking skills.

Director and Managing Editor of FactSpace West Africa, Rabiu Alhassan said it is a fact-checking/publisher partnership built to address the age-long challenge of debunks that have minimal online reach.

“Fact-checks are always known to hobble in the face of viral misinformation. But not anymore. This collaboration will ensure that millions of Africans online get access to verified information while we ensure purveyors of misinformation are held accountable, which speaks to our positioning as a second-generation fact-checker”, he said.

Executive Director of AW Free Foundation Emmanuel Vitus Agbenonwossi noted that in sub-Saharan Africa, if the exposure of journalists and whistleblowers’ to misinformation and disinformation, is left unaddressed, it could further undermine the precarious foothold of independent media on the continent.

“So, with this partnership, AW Free Foundation plans to explore misinformation and disinformation in multiple African countries through in-depth research, policy briefs and to build the capacity of 2500 journalists across all 5 regions of the continent to restore trust in the media”, he stressed,

Meanwhile, FactSpace West Africa and AW Free Foundation look forward to training thousands of fact-checkers in Africa and consistently fact-checking and verifying information in multiple African languages.