The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), in partnership with the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of ECOWAS, has held a week-long training and experience-sharing programme for Ivorian journalists and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Abidjan.
The sessions, held from September 29 to October 3, 2025, aimed to equip media practitioners to report ethically and professionally during the upcoming October 25 presidential election, while strengthening CSOs’ capacity to understand and counter mis/disinformation and hate speech.
Opening the engagement, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, represented by Mr. Ebenezer Ofosu Asiedu, urged participants to support a peaceful and credible process, stressing the need for innovative strategies inspired by global best practices.
The engagements involved representatives of over 35 major media organisations of all types – radio, TV, newspapers and online as well as representatives of over 30 major CSOs.
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the MFWA, played a key facilitation role at the sessions. He shared regional lessons on tackling election-related falsehoods, drawing on Ghana’s 2024 experience. He explained how fact-checking groups collaborated under the “Elections Media Situation Room,” hosted by the MFWA, to counter misinformation. He urged the Ivorian media to maintain professionalism and impartiality in their election coverage.
Mr. Braimah also commended ECOWAS for its continued commitment to strengthening democracy, recalling the December 2023 Memorandum of Understanding between MFWA and the ECOWAS Commission to build the capacity of media across West Africa for peace, democracy, and human rights.
