Government is ramping efforts to combat misinformation, disinformation – Fatimatu Abubakar

As part of efforts to combat the spread of fake news and rumours, the Government is working with news app developers, media owners and stakeholders in the new media ecosystem to make it unprofitable for people to disseminate false information.

Through the Ministry of Information, the Government is, therefore, working to enhance mechanisms for fact-checking among journalists, traditional media outlets, news app developers and stakeholders in the media space.

Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, the Minister of Information, made this known in an interview with the media in Accra on Saturday.

She said the Ministry had worked collaboratively with stakeholders in the media landscape to develop a draft document on a National Action Plan on Misinformation and Disinformation, which is currently before Cabinet for consideration and approval.

Upon approval, the Minister said, it would sanitize the media ecosystem and make it unprofitable for people to spread false information.

The Action Plan has six-point strategy to combat misinformation and disinformation in Ghana, she said.

The Government is also working to pass the Broadcasting Bill into law to assist in addressing misinformation and disinformation.

“In the absence of accurate information and facts, a vacuum is created and people take advantage to spread falsehoods and rumours,” she said.

“Reseach shows that fake news spread faster than real facts. For instance, a research on Twitter now X, showed that 70 per cent of fake news is likely to be retweeted than information on government policies.”

“This is why we are minded to cure it,” Ms Abubakar added.

The Minister said provisions under the 1992 Constitution gave rights to journalists and the public to have unfettered access to information but where there was fake news that rights was threatened.

“The right to information is the right to truth and the right to fact and not to misinformation,” she said.

Ms Abubakar reiterated the Ministry’s resolve to collaborate more with fact-checking institutions, including Dubawa, Fact-Check Ghana and some media houses to fight against the spread of fake news.

That, she said, would make people conscious to fact-check every news they received from any news portal.

Ms Abubakar highlighted some measures the Ministry had instituted to enable the public to verify or validate information including the Government’s digital performance tracker, which have data on government’s infrastructural projects and policy initiatives.

The Media Capacity Enhancement Programme, she said, was one of the strategies the Ministry adopted to enhance professional practice and enable journalists to be conscious in validating information before broadcasting or publishing.

So far, 140 journalists have benefitted in terms of training in ethical journalism under the programme.