By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Chief Electoral Commissioner last Friday 24th March 2023 launched a campaign aimed at combating misinformation, disinformation and mal-information across Sierra Leone.
Launching the campaign at the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) headquarter in Freetown, Mohamed Kenewie Konneh emphasised the dangers of fake news on their work as an electoral management body. He said this does not only deteriorate the level of trust and confidence in the electoral processes, but also creates chaos and confusion in the country.
He mentioned a typical case of disinformation which he said was perpetrated by a former junior staff of the commission who in his ploy to disinform the public about a meeting the commission had during which they took some policy decisions, mistakenly sent the very audio tape to the official whatsapp group of the commission. This he said was reported to the police who are currently investigating the individual.
“This is how mischievous people can be and misinformation and disinformation occur both internally and externally,” he said.
He therefore applauded the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists who will be implementing the campaign and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the funding partners for the initiative to ensure a society free of mis- and disinformation.
The commissioner also used the occasion to clarify information out on social media and on the streets about certain actions of the commissions such as the boundary delimitation which he said is required after a national population census is conducted. He also spoke about the Proportional Representation system and how they arrived at the threshold for the political parties to get parliamentary and local council seats.
In his statement, Francis Sowa PhD defined the concepts of misinformation and disinformation. He said Disinformation is false information deliberately created and shared to deceive the audience. While misinformation is false information shared by an individual without the intention to deceive or create problems.
He also applauded SLAJ and the donor partner NDI for such initiative, noting that the campaign will go a long way in combating the fake news, a new societal threat.
Speaking at the event, Mohamed Konneh, the Country Director for NDI Sierra Leone noted that most of the conflicts and violence activities that have occurred in the country recently including the deadly August 10 violence cannot be unconnected to misinformation and disinformation.
He also said that much will not be achieved in the implementation of the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Act aimed at ensuring women are better placed in governance if misinformation and disinformation are not combated.
He said the selection of SLAJ for the implementation of the project was deliberate, noting that SLAJ brings in valuable contributions in combating fake news given the human resource base of the association.
He concluded with a call on the society to support the Super Newsroom that will be created at the SLAJ headquarters to ensure accurate information by the fact checkers.
Giving an overview of the project, the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, Ahmed Sahid Nasralla noted that the project covers the pre-elections, voting periods and post elections periods.
He said that the Super News room otherwise known as the situation room will be in full operation at SLAJ offices across the regions with fact checkers verifying information and claims and sharing the verified information with the public through various channels including social media platforms. He also called on the various stakeholders to support the campaign in their diverse ways.
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