EIB Network’s broadcast journalist, Ekow Boakye has been selected as one of the top three in WITNESS’ Fortifying Community Truth inaugural cohort. His selection comes after the realisation of his project, following a three-day residential training with WITNESS in Abuja, Nigeria in 2024.
The project, named The FACTory, is a vlog which teaches fact-checking to a diverse audience using a practical approach. The vlog has featured topics including but not limited to Geolocation, Image Verification, Social Media Investigation and Community Verification.
Ekow’s recognition by WITNESS came in at the close-out ceremony after a year of professional fellowship with the international organisation. He was honoured in the maiden edition for Western and Central Africa alongside two Nigerians; Babajide Oluwaseun and Opeyemi Lawal who undertook a community sensitisation and online cataloguing of mob action.
The three-day intensive workshop which took place in Abuja, Nigeria from May 29 to 31, 2024 trained 17 participants including 3 Ghanaians in digital verification, open-source investigation, archiving practices, and data analysis, empowering them to defend human rights and strengthen democracy.
The first cohort, which saw participants from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, were trained and will be chaperoned for the following twelve months by experts from WITNESS, Lagos Business School- Nigeria, Dubawa and Nation Media- Kenya.
Ekow Boakye’s work on The FACTory can be seen via:
