The Media Foundation for West Africa as part of a nationwide campaign to combat the spread of misinformation has trained 25 journalists in Accra on how to spot misinformation and counter same through fact checking.

The 2-day intensive workshop which saw participants from the Western, Western North, Central and Greater Accra Regions converge at the Sunlodge hotel, Tesano, from March 16 to March 17, was one in a series of workshops organised for journalists and media practitioners across the country.

The workshops are part of efforts to reduce the spread of fake news especially as the country nears the 2024 general elections.

The exercise was themed: ‘Countering Mis-disinformation and propaganda narratives through fact-checking and media campaigns.’

The project was funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom.

Participants were encouraged to reflect on the phenomenon of misinformation and disinformation and its impact on peace, stability and democratic consolidation in Ghana.

They were exposed to concepts such as information disorder, fake news, misinformation; disinformation; their manifestations, and how they impact peace and democratic governance.

And the hands-on component of the training workshop provided participants with the requisite skills to use some fact-checking/verification tools to identify analyse content and produce fact-checked reports that counter mis-disinformation.

Meanwhile, a national-level forum on the theme: Misinformation, Peace and Democratic Consolidation in Ghana will be held on March 22, 2023, at the Alisa Hotel in Accra Ghana.

The Forum will be organised in collaboration with the National Peace Council and Ghana’s media regulator, the National Media Commission.