African body tasks media professionals to check spread of fake news

African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) rose from its crucial meeting in Accra, Ghana early this month, with call on media professionals and media professional bodies in Africa to take urgent steps to check and counteract the spread of “fake news” which is now regarded as one of the greatest threats to democracy around the world.

While acknowledging that the deliberate falsification of information and the dissemination of such information are not necessarily the handiwork of professional journalists, the body was nonetheless convinced that professional journalists have a major role to play in checking this phenomenon by providing the public with accurate and reliable information.

The body also expressed concerns about the growing wave of attacks against journalists and the media in general across the African continent, especially during elections.

It believed that the failure of African governments to live up to their responsibility of protecting journalists as well as other members of the public is exacerbating this problem with numerous cases of unresolved killings of journalists and other crimes against journalists that have not been properly investigated in many countries, including Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, and Cameroon.

It noted that the well-established norm that the ability of citizens to freely exercise their right to freedom of expression underpins democratic practice in any country. It therefore believed that the deteriorating state of freedom of expression on the African continent is a clear signal of the decline in the quality of democracy in Africa.

“We find it ironic and contradictory that although African Union (AU) leaders have launched 2018 as the African Anti-Corruption Year, its members are actively hounding the media and media professionals in many countries for reporting and exposing official corruption”.

The body therefore called on African countries to establish multi-stakeholder national mechanisms, ideally backed by Law, to promote the safety of journalists and other actors who are often targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression and through which a range of activities in this regard can be coordinated and implemented. “Such activities could potentially include the reform of media laws, the monitoring of threats and attacks to freedom of expression, as well as the training of members of different stakeholder groups such as the military, law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies; legislators, and member of the Judiciary. The mechanism could also serve as an avenue for the provision of protection for persons at risk and for responding to the problem of impunity”.

The body re-elected Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda in Nigeria, to serve as Chair of the AFEX Steering Committee for a further period of two years.

Daniel Obi