Namibian media and civil society stakeholders join forces to promote credible information ahead of elections
A coalition of Namibian media and civil society organisations and Africa Check, supported by the Google News Initiative (GNI), are partnering to fact-check information ahead of the November 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
On 27 November 2024, Namibians will vote for a new president and representation in the National Assembly.
The elections will take place on an increasingly competitive political landscape that has already become marked by election-related misinformation.
To help voters critically engage with information and make informed decisions in the voting booth, several media and civil society organisations are joining forces to create a fact-checking coalition with funding support from the Google News Initiative.
The coalition will collaborate to fact-check politicians and political party claims, provide voters with reliable, nonpartisan information on key issues, and equip the public with the skills they need to identify election misinformation.
“The influx of false information during an election season is often more than any one organisation can manage. Having used a collective approach during major elections in several African countries, we’re excited to take the lessons learned to Namibia and offer our support where it’s needed,” said Cayley Clifford, Africa Check’s deputy chief editor.
1 October 2024
Initial coalition partners include fact-checking organisations Africa Check and Namibia Fact Check; media organisations Namibia Media Trust (NMT), The Namibian, Desert Radio, The Issue and the Media Ombudsman Namibia; and civil society organisations / entities Action Namibia Coalition, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID), Social Enabled Education (SEE) Namibia, and the Media and Information Literacy Learning Initiative Trust (MiLLi).
“This is a much needed and very welcome initiative,” said Frederico Links, Namibia Fact Check’s editor. “We are definitely seeing an up-tick in election-related mis- and disinformation ahead of the 27 November elections, so this initiative will help us and our partners to try stem the tide of falsehoods that could undermine Namibia’s still developing democracy.”
The coalition is still open to news and civil society organisations that are interested in joining.
“As part of Google’s commitment to combat mis- and disinformation we are proud to work with Africa Check in establishing this fact-checking coalition in the lead up to the Namibian national elections,” said Marianne Erasmus, Google’s News Partner Manager for Sub Saharan Africa.
“Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Journalism plays a key role in helping to achieve that. We want Namibians to confidently discern between fact and fiction and have access to high quality information.”