During the Covid19 pandemic outbreak between 2020 and 2021 as world economies were brought to their knees with scientists and public health practitioners grappling to place a figure to what the cause and possible remedy to the scourge; the flow of information shrunk and created a huge gap separating falsehoods and accurate information.
Misinformation sprung up from all corners including; the numbers released, virus’s origins, vaccine safety and efficacy of preventive measures whereby people claimed that the Covid19 disease of the whites and expect mortality to be highest among white people from Europe and the US.
Journalism suffered a big blow in balancing facts and shaping public perception –a matter of their custodial role. The falsehoods and misinformation that had crept-in during a public health crisis was widely reported by various media houses.
For instance, in August 2021, Daily Monitor published a special report indicating that the Covid19 battle had been hit by misinformation across the world where sources were quoted indicating that the cases had grown rapidly in some places because they had been injected by the virus.
Misinformation and falsehoods, most of which had been bought by the general public, knocked at President Museveni’s door when the public had been misinformed that he had died when he spent over three weeks
in isolation.
The proliferation of fake news then led to a crisis of trust in the media thus journalists facing threats, harassment and challenges in reporting the truth with the rise of disinformation affecting public perception and democratic process.
The fake news did not just stop with Covid19 related information, it spread to the 2020/2021 general elections, especially the presidential campaigns.
For instance, during the 2021 campaigns opposition Presidential candidate Mr. Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine almost lost his life in Kayunga District when an explosive was thrown at him, his security detail and friends got injured and the police issued a statement indicating that one of the singer-cum-politician’s bouncer who had thrown the sound bomb.
A detailed investigation carried out by NBS TV, a few days later exonerated the bouncer after he had faced various threats on his life and discriminated within his own camp.
Why the spate is growing
Experts that we interviewed for this story on different occasions agree that the phenomenon has become a world-over practice indicating that it is a serious danger to journalism, attributing it to lack of strong regulatory bodies.
“In Uganda, the government passed the Computer Misuse Act 2011 and that was its way of trying to address misinformation using computers to misinform,” says Mr. Wilson Akiiki Kaija, a lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University.
He adds, “But the thing is that many people tend to think that fake news or misinformation, disinformation, malformation and propaganda is a function of social media. The only thing social media has done is that it has made it (Falsehoods) popular now because of access to technology anyone can misinform and easily consume fake news.”
The Uganda Computer Misuse act of 2011 focuses on electronic safety and security preventing unlawful access, and addressing cybercrimes like unauthorized access, modification and obstruction of computer
systems. It was later amended in 2022 to enhance provisions on unauthorized access. Prohibit sharing information about children without consent and criminalize hate speech and sharing false
information.
Mr. Kaija is quick to make a rejoinder that fake news did not start in the recent years but rather has a long and complex history, dating back to centuries of 16th and 17th.
“The whole concept of fake news is very old. For instance the first emperor of Rome, Augustus used fake news (disinformation) to rise to power, he was able to change the system of government of Rome that used to be a republic to become an empire. Octavia used to design fake messages and publish them to decampaign Anthony and those were used for Emperor Augustus to rise to power and that is 63BC and so as early as 63BC there was disinformation, so fake news did not yesterday, it did not come with social media and fake news did not come with Donald trump but he popularized it in 2016,” he says.
Historians and numerous media reports indicate that around the 16th century during Emperor Augustus’ rise to power in Rome involved Octavian, the adopted heir of Julius Caesar, waging a propaganda campaign against Mark Anthony. Octavian used disinformation tactics including brief slogans on coins and portraying Anthony’s reputation on corruption and so on. This early use of fake news allowed Octavian to manipulate public perception ultimately leading to establishment of the first Roman Emperor and Octavian’s rebranding as Augustus to begin a monarchic regime disguised as restoration of the Roman Republic.
Carol Beyanga, a multi-media expert and senior editor at Daily Monitor, says there are media houses that have not done enough to curb misinformation.
“You have to be deliberate and verify a story even if it looks good enough or what are the steps to take to make sure that you have the right thing. Those media houses that do that are the legacy media houses they have over time created policies, created structures and those that don’t, are the ones who are looking for ways of how to make money quickly or just have something out there. they’ll not do that as much or as needed so they will not do due diligence to ensure a thorough facts check,” Beyanga says in an interview for this story.
In the 2016/ 2017 presidential campaigns fake news played a significant role for Donald Trump’s as misinformation and falsehoods were used to influence public opinion. Trump’s tweets, including false
claims of election fraud were among his most popular posts perpetuating distrust and disinformation. Trump’s use of social media to disseminate misinformation highlights the impact of fake news on political discourse and public perception during his presidency.
Mr. Kaija says, “In Uganda, today governments are the biggest pavers of fake news and when I say government I am not talking about the government of Uganda only but government all over the world and good at spreading fake news to the public. But the government has passed laws, in Uganda even platforms like Facebook have been shut down and the government said that it was one of its ways of containing fake
news and the President of Uganda justified its shut down by terming it “rumormongers” on social media.
Journalists we interviewed say that people have always been fascinated by what is new and previously unheard which makes people easily take in fake news especially in this era of social media.
Daniel Lutaaya an investigative journalist says, “Sometimes it’s laziness whereby a journalist did not do enough fact checking and the end up publishing fake news and sometimes it is the rush to put out the news first. Sometime they just get things wrong because the sources are complicit in spreading the fake news, the sources that you trust and that leads one to first get at least three different sources even when trust a source they can decide to give you a fake story so that you can publish it and they ride off your credibility.”
“Here in Africa we have a fact checking organization called Africa Check which has been there for now 10 years plus, so the mechanisms which are in place now is fact checking through to make sure that each and every misinformation that is circulating on social media and mainstream media,” says Regan Kiyemba a fact checker at debunk Initiative Uganda.
How to curb fake news
According to Mr. Kaija,” As Makerere University the department of Journalism, beyond training the journalists to be, giving them skills and to get in the industry, we believe we train our students and they get out of here as a complete Journalist professionally, ethically and get into the field knowing what to do. When discussing ethics on social, online journalism, trying to tool out of things on how to verify a story, how to detect disinformation. Those tools or skills we equip the students but beyond that they are going to work on
environments that have gotten structures so how that environment shapes them, or affects what they do and how they do is beyond us once one is there in the field it’s the structure of the environment influence what one does and how one does it but we keep engaging with the industry so that we produce the best that we can”
Culton Scovia Nakamya journalist from BBS TV says, “We know that journalism must factual, balanced objective so once a story does not ride on facts and does not tick all the journalism duties so it is my duty as a journalist to report this as fake because once leave it then people will not differentiate from what is a fake story and what is not fake so we have to build authenticity so that people have trust in us as journalists because of the facts presented. It’s bad and unbecoming for Journalist to engage in reporting fake news and it’s unfortunate that we know websites that are reporting fake news, others exaggerate content so we have to condemn it because it’s against the principles of journalism and we lose public trust if we ride on fake news”
The spate underscores the importance of developing strategies to ensure that audiences receive essential and accurate news and avoiding clickbait. In Uganda the media landscape is also gripping with consequences of fake news but however the government has taken steps to address the issue including fact checking unit within the Uganda communication commissions news but also media houses have been training journalists better skills to detect fake news and able to train journalists on how to use the tools to verify information.
The future of Journalism, both in Uganda and globally, will depend on the ability of media organizations and journalists to adapt to challenges posed by fake news. By embracing digital capability building and promoting ethical standards, journalism.
By Racheal Pakrwoth, Nakangwe Suzan & Nanziri Racheal Prisca
