Publications

A l’image de ce qui se passe dans plusieurs Àpays, les fausses informations prennent de l’ampleur dans l’espace public au Sénégal. Le phénomène en soi n’est pas nouveau, mais il est aujourd’hui accentué et vulgarisé avec l’avènement des réseaux sociaux et autres plateformes numériques.

Les acteurs responsables de la création et diffusion des fausses informations comprennent non seulement les acteurs politiques – vus comme faisant partie de ceux qui en diffusent le plus – mais également le secteur des médias et du journalisme, ainsi que les usagers même des réseaux sociaux. Les fausses informations circulent ensuite par voie de bouche-à-oreille, dans les grand-places, les marchés et autres lieux de rencontre. En outre, la possibilité que d’autres acteurs externes soient impliqués dans la propagation des fausses informations au Sénégal serait un risque majeur pour l’état de la démocratie sénégalaise, même si l’incidence d’une telle influence ne peut être avérée de manière définitive.

This study, which draws on 16 key informant interviews with academics, journalists, lawyers, and social media users and an extensive review of relevant reports, documents, and social media posts, provides one of the first comprehensive overviews of the, increasingly digital, information eco-system in Cabo Verde.

Technology advancements and the emergence of social media have brought the issue of fake news or ‘informações falsas’ (fake information) as it is referred to by citizens of Cabo Verde, to the center of debates on communication and the dissemination of information. Overall, the consensus remains that although the frequency of online fake news is increasing, such information remains largely peripheral. The same analysis applies to newspapers which despite having a political slant are not widely read in the country.

In January 2020 internet penetration in Sierra Leone was 25% and there were an estimated 700,000 active social media users, with Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp the most used applications. These new media platforms act as both sources and enablers of fake news. The internet has also influenced news gathering and content production in the sense that some media institutions now directly copy and paste content from the internet and other online media sources, bringing them into the traditional media realm.

This study offers an assessment of Sierra Leone’s fake news ecosystem drawing primarily on qualitative data. Fourteen key informant interviews were conducted with key actors, social media influencers, traditional media practitioners, government officials, fact-checkers, media monitors, civil society experts, and academics.
In addition, three focus group discussions were conducted in Freetown and Bo in June 2021 with social media users comprising youth, the elderly and women. A review of available literature and online searches of websites and social media further supplemented and contextualized the
findings.

2020 will be remembered as the year of #EndSARS, the series of explosive, youth-led protests against police brutality and impunity that caught the Nigerian government by surprise and eventually forced it to make some concessions to the protesters. Starting in the first week of October and continuing for the next several weeks, the protests erupted at the close of a difficult year in which an erratically implemented lockdown imposed to curtail the spread of the coronavirus had led to widespread frustration.

Since Nigeria returned to democratic Governance in 1999, it has completed seven election cycles. In all these
elections, women have been largely marginalized in the political space at all levels. According to the Inter-Parliamentary
Union 2019 rankings, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of women’s s legislative representation in Africa. This paper will examine the historical progress, interventions made, and challenges faced by young women in politics in Nigeria’s 20 years of democracy. In doing so it aims to contribute to a broader review of women’s political representation in Nigeria.

The struggles for human rights in Nigeria have been long, arduous, and continue to this day. Before establishing the current democratic government in 1999, Nigerians were subjected to sixteen years of oppressive military rule marked by scores of human rights violations. The Nigerian military not only governed with brute force but also institutionalized human rights violations into the Nigerian legal system through decrees.

Corruption in Nigeria is ubiquitous and takes in many forms: from massive contract fraud to petty bribery; from straight-up embezzlement to complicated money laundering schemes. Just six years after independence, the country experienced it’s first military coup that ousted the elected officials of the first republic. One notable justification for the 1966 coup d’etat by the military was the pervasive corruption of the first republic civilian leadership.

The importance of women’s participation in public decision-making cannot be over- stressed. Apart from the fact that it is their right, their inclusion in leadership positions, whether in government, corporate bodies or the social sector, brings diversity of perspectives to the solution of societal problems.

Fake News is increasingly becoming a dangerous weapon. Like other lethagic weapons used in causing serious afflictions, the weaponisation of falsehood –Misinformation and Disinformation, has proven a more dangerous means of creating unrest, conflict, and an outright war.

Putting this in context, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), as part of its regional campaign against Fake News and Misinformation and Disinformation in the West Africa Subregion, beamed its searchlight on Côte D’ivoire and its News Ecosystem.

The outcome of that research is the production of this highly illuminating Report, one of the components of OSIWA’s larger interventions on Tackling Fake News in West Africa.

Ce numéro spécial s’intitule Media Matters In West Africa et explore les défis auxquels sont confrontés les médias dans la sous-région ouest-africaine, en proposant des recommandations sur la façon dont certains de ces défis peuvent être surmontés.

Mercy Abang ouvre ce numéro avec un article qui passe en revue les défis auxquels les publications médiatiques sont confrontées pour trouver un équilibre entre la nécessité d’un contrôle éditorial indépendant et le besoin de commercialisation et de génération de revenus. Avec Stears Business, Abang propose un nouveau modèle où la numérisation joue un rôle clé en tant que fonction commerciale essentielle.

Dans Crucial Communication : Indigenous Language Radio in Northern Ghana, Yahaya Masahudu souligne l’impact des programmes radiophoniques en langue indigène, en particulier dans la région du nord du Ghana où l’information et le développement sont apparemment liés à la radio indigène. L’article appelle à des investissements délibérés dans ce secteur critique.

Leanne de Bassompierre nous présente les initiatives prises par les journalistes en Sierra Leone pour séparer la réalité de la fiction, en soulignant le rôle important que chacun doit jouer pour contrer la prévalence croissante des fausses nouvelles dans le pays.

Cliquez ici pour télécharger ce numéro!