A nationwide fact-checking collaboration gets ready for elections in Ghana | Poynter
By Harrison Mantas on December 1, 2020
Ghanaians heading to the polls for the Dec. 7 presidential election will be aided by the largest fact-checking collaboration in their nation’s history. Fact-checking organizations, news outlets and civil society groups are banding together to build a nationwide bulwark against election misinformation.
Rabiu Alhassan, managing editor of the fact-checking organization GhanaFact, has been traversing the country since September to train representatives from 35 media outlets spread across Ghana’s 16 regions. Each of these organizations will produce and cross publish each other’s fact checks before, during and after the election.
“We are really excited about the prospect of opening up the fact-checking space and empowering journalists across the length and breadth of the country,” Alhassan said. The network of 35 news outlets will be joined by a number of influential Ghanaian bloggers trained by fellow Ghanaian fact-checking organization Dubawa Ghana, as well as a network of election observers, and a central election information hub organized by the nonprofit West African Network for Peacebuilding.
