Namibian media launch fact-check initiative 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 presidential and parliamentary elections.The broad-based coalition aims to help voters critically engage with information and make informed decisions in the voting booth.On 27 November, Namibians will head to the polls to elect a new president and National Assembly representatives, following the passing of president Hage Geingob while in office."The upcoming elections will be held in an increasingly competitive political landscape, already marked by election-related misinformation," said Frederico Links, editor of Namibia Fact Check, in a press release.This, according to Links, represents an increase in election-related misinformation and disinformation ahead of the elections. "This initiative will help us and our partners work to stem the tide of falsehoods that could undermine Namibia’s still-developing democracy," he said.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 GNI. "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 needed to identify election misinformation".Collective effort"The flood of false information during election season is often too much for any one organisation to handle," said Cayley Clifford, Africa Check's deputy chief editor.She announced the initial coalition partners, which include fact-checking organisations Africa Check and Namibia Fact Check, media groups Namibia Media Trust (NMT), The Namibian, Desert Radio, The Issue, and the Media Ombudsman Namibia, as well as civil society organisations like the Action Namibia Coalition, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID), Social Enabled Education (SEE) Namibia, and the Media and Information Literacy Learning Initiative Trust (MiLLi).The coalition has urged news and civil society organisations and interested parties to join. “As part of Google’s commitment to combat misinformation and disinformation, we are proud to partner with Africa Check in establishing this fact-checking coalition ahead of the Namibian national elections,” said Marianne Erasmus, Google’s news partner manager for Sub-Saharan Africa.She added: “Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Journalism plays a key role in achieving that. We want Namibians to confidently discern between fact and fiction and have access to high-quality information.”

Namibian media launch fact-check initiative ahead of elections

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-16

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Namibian media launch fact-check initiative ahead of elections

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-16

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