Mr. Albert Dwumfour, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has cautioned political and election stakeholders who cannot accommodate journalists to stay away from them.

Addressing a group of journalists being trained under the “Advanced Course on Disinformation and Fact-Checking during the Election Process for Ghanaian Journalists,” he warned stakeholders of the GJA’s zero tolerance for any attack on journalists during the period.

He advised stakeholders to stay away from journalists instead if they don’t have the “temperament to accommodate them.”

The two-day course was organised by CASA Africa, the Spanish Embassy in Ghana, in partnership with the GJA and Spanish media outlets Maldita.ES and Newtral.

The GJA President reminded journalists of their gatekeeping role to debunk any form of disinformation and misinformation that would emerge before, during, and after the election through fact-checking, which he said was ‘non-negotiable’ in today’s journalism.

This, according to him, would help promote transparency and accountability and lead the citizenry to make informed decisions, thus protecting the peace and hard-earned democracy of the country.

Mr. Joan Tusell Prats, Head of Media Relations at CASA Africa—a public diplomacy institution affiliated with the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry—added that disinformation, misinformation, and the need to fact-check information had become worldwide issues, hence the need to share experiences via the training of players in the African media industry.

“In the last five years, we’ve been focusing on disinformation not because we think it is an African issue but also a worldwide issue. We took advantage of the fact that in Spain, we have worldwide recognised media specialised in fact-checking, and we thought that sharing that experience with African journalists and media could be useful,” he said.

Mr. Angel Lossada-Torres Quevedo, the Spanish Ambassador to Ghana, urged Ghanaian journalists to combat the spread of fake news because it was dangerous to the democracy of the country.

The six-session training, spread over two days, would witness both Ghanaian and Spanish media resource personnel train journalists from across the country on how to identify and deal with disinformation and effectively employ fact-checking methods and tools for verifying information, particularly as the country shifts towards elections slated for December 7.

Topics listed for the training include: “Political Fact-Checking and Emerging Narratives” presented by Maria G. Dionis, a science journalist and fact-checker working with Spanish media outlet Newtral; “Disinformation Tactics: Understanding the ‘Bad Guys’ and Their Methods” by Laura del Rio, a journalist and knowledge management coordinator at Spanish media outlet Maldita.ES.

Others include “Debunking Disinformation: Practical Cases and Experience in Ghana” by Kwaku Krobea Asante, Senior Programme Officer at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and “Disinformation in Ghana: General Overview” presented by Anthony Bells Kafui Kanyi, fact-checker and former deputy news editor at the Ghana News Agency.