The Kwame Karikari Fellowship under DUBAWA, a transnational fact-checking and verification platform initiated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), has begun the training of 40 journalists and researchers from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone toward tackling the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation in the anglophone region of West Africa.
Daily Trust reports that the fellowship, in its seventh year, has applicants from various newsrooms on a six-month programme to combat information disorder in the continent who are also exposed to various Open-Source Intelligence tools.
The fellowship, named after the renowned Ghanaian journalist and media advocate Kwame Karikari, is dedicated to promoting accountability of public institutions and supported by the “National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The fellowship programme will run from March 1 to August 30, 2024.
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Speaking during a virtual four-day workshop training, the Chief Executive Officer of CJID, Dapo Olorunyomi, said, “If West Africa is going to live up to its promise, journalism is central to the progress.”
According to him, journalism is at the forefront of democracy, adding that “Indeed, we are doing fact-checking verification as a key element to democracy.”
On his part, the Director of Programmes at CJID, Akintunde Babatunde, said the programme started from the training of newsrooms in Nigeria to incorporate fact-checking desk and expanded into the training of journalists from five West African countries.
He added that the programme this year included journalists working on indigenous platforms, thus, 10 of the fellows will conduct their fact-checks in local languages.
