By Maxwell Awuma
Ho, June 24, GNA – Mr Kenneth Kponor, Volta Regional Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged media outlets to provide context, multiple perspectives, and accurate information to the public and avoid amplifying misinformation, fake news and propaganda narratives.
Instead, he entreated the media, to focus on debunking false narratives and false claims in headlines or breaking news alerts to shape public opinion and perspective going into the December polls.
The Media must prioritise responsible reporting and Journos should adhere to ethical standards and avoid sensationalism or click-bait headlines.
Mr Kponor made these statements during the opening section of the two-day training for Journos on “Countering Hate Speech and Polarising Narratives to Foster Democratic Consolidation and Peace in Ghana,” under the auspices of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
The workshop is part of a series of undertakings being spearheaded by MFWA to build the capacity of Journos with knowledge of fact-based conflict-sensitive reporting through democratic consolidation.
He said Media establishments should prioritise fact-checking and verifying information before publishing or airing stories in view of the exigencies of modern trends in reporting tools.
The Director urged Media outlets to be transparent about their sources and reporting methods, and clearly labelling opinion pieces, analysis, and sponsored content could help the audience differentiate between news and commentary.
He said elections come with a lot of tension and, in some cases, pose a threat to peace but the journalists become central to dousing the tension by providing accurate information to foster an informed public.
Mr Kponor reiterated the resolve of NCCE to name and shame political activists, who breach the peace and encouraged the media to educate the youth against violent extremism.
Dr Kojo Impraim, Programme Director, Media for Peace and Sustainable Development, MFWA, said the use and promotion of unsavoury language in the media had the propensity to derail the country’s fledgling democracy saying it would be sacrilegious and unproductive for the media to surrender their platform to promoters of hate speech and the likes.
He said for the media to anchor their peace-building mandates effectively, there was a need to understand the key drivers and undercurrents of toxic narratives, mis/disinformation and fake news narratives.
He said the politics of duopoly and winner-takes-all was promoting mistrust, excessive partisanship and polarisation of the country and urged Journos to douse these pressures by promoting national cohesion for development.
Dr Impraim said some 500 journos have been trained from February to date under the Countering Hate Speech and Polarising Narratives to Foster Democratic Consolidation and Peace in Ghana project.
Dr David Yao Normanyo, a Peacebuilding Expert, enumerated causes and sources of conflicts as competition for scarce resources, structural imbalance, electoral disputes, bad governance, social exclusion, and religious and cultural differences among others.
He urged Journos to practice conflict-sensitive reporting and adapt to responsible and ethical journalism that contributes to the reduction of tension as well as provides fair, accurate, objective and balanced reports on conflict.
Dr Normanyo, who is also the Volta Regional Director of the National Peace Council said the media could report conflicts by understanding the issues using conflict analysis tools, reporting on background and on the human side of conflicts.
Mr Kwaku Krobea Asante, Team Lead, Fact-Check Ghana, MFWA, reminded Journos of the need to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) fact-checking methodologies and tools.
He said the software In-Vid, Meta and Exif data and reverse image search were useful in scanning videos and images to trace their original source, language, content and context.
He said geo-location, maps and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses helped in pinpointing where information could have come from.
Mr Asante urged journalists and the public to always read beyond headlines to prevent being misled, review their own pre-conceived notions, and check authors, comic relief taglines and sources of information.
GNA