Our Managing Editor to give keynote address at disinformation investigation event in Dakar
Code for Africa has invited the Managing Editor of Ghana Business News, Emmanuel K Dogbevi to give the keynote address at a disinformation investigation seminar in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Code for Africa is partnering with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) for this seminar.
“We are convening a seminar on disinformation and foreign influence operations in Africa, for a group of journalists and CSO watchdog researchers we’ve been training to use data-driven open source intelligence (OSINT) investigative techniques,… We hoped you would be able to contribute as a keynote speaker for the event,” the invitation letter said.
Code for Africa is the continent’s largest non-profit digital democracy and civic technology incubator, supporting investigative media and social justice NGOs through its network of staff/labs in 21 countries. This includes an in-house fact-checking team, which is the largest in Africa, as well the continent’s largest Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning media monitoring team (at https://civicsignal.africa/). It also has a team that uses forensic data science to investigate disinformation, influence operations and toxic content online.
The event set for July 20 to 22 will be attended by participants from mainstream media in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, and Sudan (though the bulk of participants will be from Nigeria).
These participants have recently undergone an intensive one-on-one mentorship, technology/technical support, data science analysis, investigative support and editorial mentorship in Code for Africa’s programme ‘African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI)’. There will also be virtual attendance from a range of other countries.
Mr Dogbevi will be speaking on the topic: “How foreign influence and disinformation affects the media.”
“I believe Code for Africa invited me to perform this important role, because they have noticed what my values represented in my works stand for in the bigger scheme of what they aim to achieve on the continent, in the pursuit of truth,” Mr Dogbevi said.
Mr Dogbevi’s works are well known globally, his in-depth and unique style of reporting have stood out in his coverage of corruption, illicit financial flows, tax avoidance and illegal logging.
He is the Founder of Ghana Business News and Executive Director of NewsBridge Africa, a non-profit organisation that specializes in media training, curriculum development and mentoring of journalists across Africa.
A Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economic Journalism at Columbia University in the City of New York, he has been practicing journalism for more than three decades and has continued to blaze a trail only the keen observers of important journalism can notice.
“This is yet another opportunity for me to share ideas, network and build the confidence of other journalists and civil society actors – to let them understand that while the terrain in Africa is difficult, with focus and dedication to the core values of what their work represents in terms of holding the powerful to account and building better societies in their countries, they can keep going,” he said.
By Peter Quarshie
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