The media is urged to fact-check information before disseminating it to avoid misleading the public. 

 The report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Namibia Fact Check on Countering Election 2024 Mis- and Disinformation indicates that a significant amount of disinformation was spread without any fact-checking during the general elections.

The Editor and Project Coordinator of Namibia Fact Check, Frederico Links, said speculations were made with no verification, and this was highly damaging to the credibility of the media in the country.

Therefore, the media need to do some reflection and introspection to avoid such encounters in the future.

"The biggest example of bad reporting around the elections was the one on Netumbo's collapse; that was fabrication. It did not happen, but media reports on the newspaper front pages speculated about a collapse that was not a collapse. I believe that was highly damaging to the media of this country. Specific example."

The report further analyses political messaging, specifically the types of misinformation and disinformation that political actors or those associated with them were transmitting via traditional and social media platforms.

The findings further include campaigns that were more counter-attacking instead of addressing social and economic issues, foreign influence in the elections, and the use of AI in the electoral process.

"We saw something happening already by 2024, more than six to eight months before the elections; it was becoming clear that certain narratives were surfacing on social media platforms. What we are looking at is we look at the what and how of the political messaging, specifically at disinformation produced speaking to election-related topics, and whether we can identify if political actors are behind the production of such content and how it is spread, whether through traditional or new media."

According to the report, the government needs to prioritise digital information literacy and educate the public on how to identify false content. 

Further, develop guidelines to assist states in monitoring technology companies concerning their duty to maintain information integrity through independent fact-checking. 

The report will be available on the IPPR website by this Friday.