By Raymond Dingana
Over 300 journalists, fellows of the Africa Fact-Checking Fellowship, AFFCameroon, have taken a renewed commitment to strengthen fight against misinformation, disinformation and hate speech during electoral periods in the country. They took the commitment during a two-day conference in Yaounde.
Hosted by Civic Watch, implementing organization of the #defyhatenow initiative in Cameroon, the multi-stakeholder conference that spanned March 27 to 28, 2024, sought to address digital threats to elections in the country and proffer strategies to counter disinformation during such periods.
The AFF a Civic Watch/#defyhatenow program that promotes fact-checking, data journalism, and digital rights to journalists, bloggers, content creators, and community leaders in Africa. Besides all fellows of the nine cohorts of fact-checkers trained since the program was launched in the country in 2020, other election stakeholders in the country, representatives of public and private institutions, political parties, diplomatic missions, international and national organizations also attended the conference.
The conference, organizers said, aimed to spark public debate on the root causes and manifestations of disinformation and its impact on Cameroon. It also sought to rally all stakeholders towards socio-political stability, good governance, democracy, and peace during the pre-election, election, and post-election periods in the country.
If the electoral calendar is respected, then general elections will be organized in the country next year – a period that is usually marked by high propagation of mis/disinformation and hate speech.
According to the founder of Civic Watch, Ngala Desmond, who doubles as Country Project Manager of #defyhatenow in Cameroon, they didn’t want to wait till elections are announced before they start strategizing how to combat the social ills.
“It’s also very important that after training nine cohorts of the same group with similar programs, we should all come together and give meaning by exchanging notes on what has changed, and what has not changed from where we used to be till date,” Ngala said.
He said four years after they started the trainings, they have realized the way media professionals treat information is gradually changing positively with more and more journalists prioritizing information verification which is a basic canon of journalism.
“Our goal at the end of this conference is to propose more effective preventive and reactive responses to guide future efforts to protect electoral integrity and prevent electoral violence,” Ngala said further.
Exchanging best practices
Conference participants exchange best practices in advancing and promoting promoting fact checking in Africa with guest speakers from Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, drawing on their countries’ experiences in combating misinformation and online hate speech during elections.
According to Nairobi-based Njoki Kariuki, a Social Media Manager at r0g_agency for Open Culture and Critical Transformation, initiator of #defyhatenow, if elective positions are made less attractive, it will curb the rate of mis/disinformation during electoral periods.
Expounding on the understanding the modus operandi of influence campaigns using the 2022 elections in Kenya as a case study, Njoki said the energy used during political campaigns where politicians do all to discredit their opponents is explained by the fact that the offices they vie come with a lot of power and influence.
“Some spread all sorts of lies against their rivals just to be elected. This is because of the benefits that come with such positions. If those positions were made to be just like any other civil service job like it entails in some countries, no one would be compelled to go dirty to the point of even murdering people just to be elected,” said Njoki.
She also said elected officials are supposed to be in service to the population, and if the positions are made less attractive, it would reduce the way mis/disinformation is spread during elections because the stakes would not be that high.
On his part, Ntonye Njoya Mohammed, Technical Adviser at the Office of the Chairperson of elections management body, Elections Cameroon, (ELECAM), described the conference as crucial for stakeholders to get a better understanding of the electoral process in Cameroon.
“Our presence here today is to accompany this organization in this brilliant initiative that we are commending. We will do our best to bring all stakeholders so that they can understand the importance of combatting disinformation in the electoral process with the view of consolidating Cameroon’s democracy”, Ntonye said.
At the end of the confab, attendees acknowledged they gained more knowledge, and committed to put it into practice as the country looks forward to the 2025 elections.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No 172 of Monday, April 8, 2024.
