Dubawa Ghana trains rural journalists from northern Ghana on fact-checking in Tamale

Dubawa Ghana trains rural journalists from northern Ghana on fact-checking in Tamale

fact-checking and verification organization, Dubawa has trained 20 media practitioners working in rural areas in northern Ghana on fact-checking to enhance factual and accurate reportage.

The training forms part of efforts made by Dubawa Ghana to train many journalists on fact-checking based news gathering in rural communities in the country. The project with funding from US Embassy in Ghana seeks to promote quality and facts based journalism in rural Ghana.

Madam Caroline Anipah, Dubawa Ghana’s team leader, underscoring the need for the training said there are a growing number of information disorders among journalists and media practitioners in the country. She further stated that based on concerns raised over the increasing levels fake misinformation, mal-information and disinformation there was the need to empower journalists especially those in rural areas with fact-checking journalism in order to properly educate and inform the public.

She noted that journalists in Ghana ought to be trained to understand fact-checking and stop misleading the public that could affect development of the country because the world is now inter-connected.

The Dubawa country boss encouraged the participating journalist to put to good use the knowledge they have acquired through the training.

Taking the participants through the topic; fake news and the law, Mr Zakaria Tanko Musah, a legal practitioner and lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism enjoined the journalists to frequently use the Right to Information (RTI) Law to request information from institutions. He said journalists should also encourage the citizens to use the law to request information from the citizens.

“Using the RTI law to request information should not exceed fourteen days and if an institution or organization does not have the information requested for, the institution should direct the applicant to where he or she can get the information per the law” he added.

“After the fourteen days if journalist or any other person does not get the information he should insist by re-applying for it to make sure that the accurate information is gotten for publication” he explained. He therefore encouraged journalists to use the RTI Law judiciously to get accurate information in order to prevent practitioners from misleading the public.