Dr. Kojo Impraim, Program Director for Media for Peace and Sustainable Development at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), highlighted Ghana’s commendable track record of peace and democratic stability over the past 30 years. He noted that this relative peace has garnered global recognition and high rankings. For instance, the 2022 Global Peace Index (GPI) ranked Ghana as the most peaceful country in West Africa and 40th in the world, marking an improvement over the 2019 and 2020 rankings.
However, despite these achievements, Ghana’s position fell significantly in the 2023 index, dropping to 51st globally and 4th in Africa. Dr. Impraim attributed this decline to several factors, including toxic narratives that fuel polarization along partisan, ethnic, religious, and chieftaincy lines, as well as radicalism. These narratives often manifest through hate speech, intemperate language, political propaganda, and misinformation and disinformation.
He explained that while such issues are not new in Ghana, the increasing access to and use of digital platforms, new methods of information manipulation, the ease with which information can be disseminated, and the multiplicity of malicious actors—both state and non-state—have significantly facilitated the spread of these toxic narratives, particularly on social media platforms.
Dr. Impraim made these remarks while addressing selected journalists from the Volta and Oti Regions at the start of a two-day training session organized by the MFWA in Ho on Thursday, June 20. He referred to Statista’s report indicating the number of social media users in Ghana has almost doubled in the last six years, rising from 4.6 million to 9 million.
He also cited data from the National Communication Authority, which indicates that the number of radio stations increased from 367 in 2017 to 513 by the end of 2022, while television stations grew from 68 to 117 over the same period. While this growth is significant for media pluralism and amplifying citizens’ voices for public accountability, a Media Ownership Monitor report on Ghana shows that many of these broadcast media organizations are owned by active politicians who use them for political propaganda to further their interests.
Dr. Impraim further explained that the challenges of excessive media use are intensified by the duopoly in Ghana’s democracy, which centers power between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC). This, coupled with the phenomenon of “winner-takes-all” electoral politics, has entrenched polarizing political views and discourse. Since 2016, the two main political parties have recruited numerous social media armies primarily for divisive propaganda, contributing to aggressive communication from political figures, increased spread of misinformation and disinformation, abusive language, hate speech, and political propaganda across key legacy and social media platforms during and beyond election periods.
These developments, Dr. Impraim indicated, continue to make Ghana more vulnerable to threats of instability arising from toxic narratives. The situation is likely to worsen as the 2024 general elections approach. He stressed that while these threats loom, the media, as a crucial actor in promoting and consolidating peace, has not fully utilized its influence, agenda-setting, and public education capacity to build bridges and foster peaceful dialogues.
To effectively play their role in promoting peace, Dr. Impraim stated that media professionals must understand the drivers and underlying currents of toxic narratives, hate speech, political propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and extremist narratives. In this context, the MFWA aims to contribute to efforts to enhance social cohesion, peaceful co-existence, and democratic stability in Ghana by nurturing a culture of richer narratives that promote fact-based discourse and encourage engagement across groups with divergent opinions.
Hence, the MFWA organized the two-day training on hate speech, political propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and other polarizing narratives for 100 journalists across five zones—Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East, and Volta Regions—under the theme “Countering Hate Speech and Polarizing Narratives to Foster Democratic Consolidation and Peace in Ghana.” The training aimed to equip journalists with the knowledge and skills necessary to counter hate speech and other divisive narratives, increase fact-based public and media discourse, and enhance media and information literacy among the Ghanaian populace.
