Kojo Oppong Nkrumah commends PROs for dealing with misinformation, disinformation

Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has commended government Public Relations Officers (PROs) for dealing with misinformation and disinformation in the media landscape.

The Minister note that despite limited resources, the various PROs have worked tiredlessly in executing their mandate.

Speaking at the 4th Public Relations Officer's review meeting in Accra under the theme, 'Curbing Misinformation and Disinformation - The Role of the Government PRO', he said "The crucial role of public relations officers in assessing ministries, departments, and agencies, aiding them in developing and executing communication strategies for their policies and programs"

The Minister stressed that their primary responsibility is not to speak on behalf of other entities but to facilitate effective communication strategies for them.

"The multifaceted mandate of the Ministry of Information, including facilitating feedback for the central government, implementing the Right to Information (RTI) Act, leading in the development of public communication policies, and representing agencies before Parliament"

"Addressing the escalating challenges of misinformation and disinformation, the Minister stressed the importance of PR officers' role in discerning and countering false narratives"

He cited instances where media misinterpretations can lead to unintended consequences and underlined the need for proactive measures to address such issues.

"I want to say one list say congratulations to you for a good job this year. Very very difficult, you have done extremely well because we’ve had barely no resources at all but we managed to do a lot even in the midst of you know the pointed to appreciate and acknowledge the hard work"

"We cannot tell them what to do. It’s actually unconstitutional so the only agency that we have which is directly under control is the information services department that’s important to go back to what the mandate of the Ministry of Information is programmes being run and how the ISD fits in"

On her part, Head, Public Relations Coordinating Division, Information Services Department (ISD), Ethel Cudjoe Amissah said "At the beginning of every year, we set targets. These are our key performance indicators and we will see how each performed, know where our strengths and weaknesses lie and, if need be, do some adjustments where necessary and then as a team, we move on to face our challenges for the coming year"

"This year we have had a number of programmes, including the introduction of the Need-to-know Series which is a peer education programme where PROs get to know all about flagship programmes in the other institutions. There will be a detailed presentation on these in due course"

"The theme for this meeting is: “Curbing Misinformation and Disinformation-The Role of the Government PRO”.

She stressed that It has become imperative that each PRO understands what is now known as information disorders and be able to identify them even in their very subtle forms. 

"Hon. Minister, I am a student of Conflict, Peace and Security and I have studied how over the years, misinformation and disinformation have played critical roles in genocides and civil wars in and around the world"

Madam Amissah hinted that the Rwandan Genocide, when it began, was labelled by the foreign media as one of the many instances of African natives killing each other, therefore no one lifted a finger to help.

"It was later the world realized that this was a carefully planned systematic purging based on years of hatred and misunderstanding fanned craftily by the media in that country"

"The media, in its entirety, controls what we hear, think and understand. I agree with Dr. Miles Munroe of blessed memory, that media can either corrupt, clarify, pervert or protect the integrity of any message that it has to deliver."

"And as we enter into election year, anticipation of the evils that can be potentially unleashed by unscrupulous persons using, especially deep fakes on social media, cannot be glossed over"

She stresse that PROs need all the knowledge they can acquire in this area.

"And we are grateful, Hon. Minister, that as soon as we brought up the subject, you knew, readily, who would be the best resource person to take us through it. Thank you very much for being a champion in this area"

Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith