The National Media Commission (NMC), is set to hold a conference on disinformation ahead of the upcoming general elections.
Disinformation refers to false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance their parochial interests.
Executive Secretary of the Commission, George Sarpong, said this would enable media practitioners to identify and root out any form of disinformation to communicate only credible and authentic news to the electorates.
Speaking on the Joy Change-Speaker Series VII on May 11, he said “Within the next couple of weeks, we are going to outline some major engagements. One of them is going to be a major national conference on disinformation.”
He explained that the conference will address current issues of disinformation during its initial phase and provide media practitioners with the skills to identify them.
Also, the Executive Director sought to explain further the concept of press freedom, saying "Freedom from what and freedom for what" are the key components to consider in the conversation about press freedom.
Mr Sarpong argued that currently, "freedom for what" is used to protect the interests of media owners, political actors, and others who use the media to protect their businesses, while some use the media to shield themselves against the state.
To address this, he said stakeholders must anticipate their next course of action, which is to capture key media institutions including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) among others.
“The Ghana Journalists Association by the next couple of years will be taken over by the same interest groups either through influencing their elections in order to secure candidates that they want.
“We are going to see business interest influencing GJA elections. We are going to see political interest groups influencing GJA elections,”he warned.
Although the Executive Secretary noted that these issues were of concern, he said there was no need for panic as they could all be addressed.
Credit: Connielove Mawutornyo Dzodzegbe
