Webinar on Ghana’s 2020 elections and fake news

Dubawa Ghana will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 17 September 2020 from 10am to 11.30am GMT, to discuss Ghana’s upcoming Elections 2020 and fake news with a focus on the lessons from past elections and Covid-19.

The year 2020 has presented an increase in misinformation following the Covid-19 pandemic and election-related activities in the country.

The varying implications both situations have presented, which include the challenge of the public in ascertaining what information is true from an avalanche of available information, is of utmost duty-bound concern to Dubawa - hence the need to facilitate such mandatory socio-political discussions.

“From global experiences, fake news can and has indeed influenced electoral outcomes such as the 2016 US elections, the elections in Brazil, Indonesia and Kenya. Therefore, we are tasked with addressing the dangers of ‘fake news’ as we move closer and towards the 2020 general elections in helping citizens on how to best discern facts from fiction in order to make informed decisions on political and electoral preferences and choice” - Caroline Anipah, Programme Officer at Dubawa (Ghana) said.

The discussions will highlight:

The lessons to be drawn from the effects of misinformation from the Covid-19 pandemic and from previous elections across the world

The response of the public and the media in dealing with an anticipated barrage of information disorder before, during and after the 2020 December 7 Ghanaian elections

The webinar, which will be moderated by Caroline Anipah, will include the following panellists from the media, academia and civil society:

Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo (Dean, School of Information and Communication Studies, University of Ghana)

Zakaria Musah-Tanko (Lawyer and lecturer, Ghana Institute of Journalism),

Rabiu Alhassan (Managing Editor, Ghana Fact)

Rhoda Offei-Afful (Team Leader, Elections, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption, CDD-Ghana)

Prof. Kwame Karikari (Keynote Speaker)

The webinar is open to the general public and can be accessed through the Zoom registration link http://bit.ly/ElectionsGH. It will also be live on Dubawa’s Facebook page https://web.facebook.com/dubawa.