The European Union (EU), in collaboration with leading fact-checking and verification organisation, DUBAWA, has launched the second phase of a regional campaign to combat disinformation and strengthen information integrity in Ghana and the West African sub-region.

Titled “See the Pattern”, the new campaign builds on the success of the previous, “Check the Facts; Don’t Get It Twisted” initiative implemented around Ghana’s 2024 general election.

The first initiative, “Check the facts”, promoted media literacy, critical thinking and responsible information sharing, particularly among young voters.

This new phase will go further by exposing and countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) — an increasingly frequent form of coordinated disinformation that seeks to undermine democratic processes, public trust and social cohesion.

Information manipulation is on the rise in Europe, Ghana and across the sub-region, challenging the stability of Ghana’s democratic institutions and the peaceful nature of its society.

Through advanced monitoring, capacity-building and strategic engagement with content creators and influencers, the campaign aims to better forecast, address and respond to information manipulation and build societal resilience against disinformation.

The campaign will engage bloggers and digital content creators, offering training on global best practices for producing credible, engaging and fact-based content.

The 2026 campaign will generate valuable insights into disinformation trends and introduce innovative approaches for mitigating the impact of FIMI and other forms of information disorder across the sub-region.

Integrity of information ecosystem

The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Rune Skinnebach, explaining this latest phase of the campaign, said open societies faced continuous attacks and manipulative attempts aimed at weakening the unity and the democratic principles shared between Ghana and the European Union.

The programme, therefore, seeks to consolidate the gains recorded during the “Check the Facts; Don’t Get It Twisted” initiative, while reinforcing the shared commitment of the EU and DUBAWA to protecting democratic values, civic discourse and the integrity of the information ecosystem in West Africa.

“This Regional Resilience Campaign is our answer – with greater transparency, heightened awareness and unwavering solidarity. We are empowering Ghanaians with the tools to discern truth from deception, fortifying our institutions against these hybrid threats,” Mr Skinnebach stated.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Akintunde Babatunde, expressed delight at the launch of the campaign, describing it as a timely and strategic intervention against the evolving threats posed by coordinated disinformation.

“For us at CJID and DUBAWA, this campaign is an opportunity to deepen and institutionalise the fact-checking and open-source investigative work we have been building across West Africa.

“Over the past seven years, we have trained more than 1,000 journalists and published thousands of fact-checks in eight languages across eight countries.

“This partnership with the European Union represents a strategic expansion of that work, and we are confident it will significantly strengthen regional resilience against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference,” he said.