The power of information disorders has been evident in recent times as seen with the COVID-19 pandemic information vacuum, which caused an influx of falsehoods shared widely on social media as causes of and remedies to the Coronavirus.

Social media was heavily saturated with hearsay and some intentionally fabricated falsehoods and conspiracy theories debunking the existence of the virus.

Videos of such nature were widely circulated, leaving behind a trail of confused and skeptical minds who, at best, reacted by either turning their backs completely on any COVID-19 related news - genuine or fake.

Having identified grassroots communities as especially targeted constituencies for political, social and cultural misinformation and disinformation, Center for International Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) through its fact checking project DUBAWA, has instituted the Kwame Karikari Fellowship to train journalist in Fact Checking in an effort to expand the reach of verified and accurate information to all.

The CJID has today, Monday, 5 December 2022, commenced a four-day fellowship training session for the Kwame Karikari Fellowship beneficiaries.

Twenty-one young journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia are going to benefit from the training.

The journalist who were selected after a series of qualification stages have committed to a three-month long fellowship which will run from January to March 2023.

The fellowship training session will see the journalists benefit from the knowledge of Fact Checkers and other media personalities, law and security professionals.

The training will commence in January 2023.

The training will cover topics such as application of the Right to Information Law, Digital Security and Media and information literacy.

The Kwame Karikari Fellowship is Supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).