Dakar, Senegal – October 1, 2025 – Demba Kandeh, a board member of FactSpace West Africa led a breakout session at the just-ended Africa Facts Summit, speaking on the role of community radio in tackling misinformation in The Gambia.
The fourth edition of the Africa Facts Summit commenced on October 1, 2025, bringing together fact-checkers, journalists, tech innovators, and information integrity experts from across the continent.
The two-day event held in Dakar, Senegal, was under the theme “ Strengthening Information Integrity, Safeguarding Democracy,” with discussions cutting across “disinformation campaigns, the impact of AI, misinformation in conflict zones, coalition-based response models, among others.”
Among the key contributors was Demba Kandeh, a journalism lecturer in The Gambia and board member of FactSpace West Africa, who presented on the title: “Detecting digital information disorder and leveraging community radio for grassroots trust-building.”
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Demba emphasised the crucial role of local trust networks, particularly community radio, in fighting misinformation in underserved and rural communities. Citing the experience in The Gambia, he stated:
“One thing we have found in The Gambia, which is important for fact-checkers, is that community radio stations command a lot of trust among local people. This is an important resource that can be leveraged.”
He also stressed the importance of language and accessibility in efforts to safeguard the information landscape: “To be effective in safeguarding the information landscape of any community, there is the need to reach these people in their local languages, and that is what we have tried in The Gambia.”
Kandeh’s remarks reflect a growing recognition among African fact-checking organisations that engaging communities at the grassroots level (especially through trusted local media) is essential to building long-term resilience against misinformation.
Aside from Kandeh, Executive Director of FactSpace West Africa, Rabiu Alhassan, was also present in Dakar for the two-day summit.
About Demba Kandeh
Demba Kandeh is currently a lecturer and researcher at the School of Journalism and Digital Media, University of The Gambia. He also manages communication for Afrobarometer research in The Gambia under the Center for Policy, Research and Strategic Studies.
He has decades of experience in journalism and media in The Gambia and abroad. As a journalist and blogger, his work has appeared in various national and international organizations including Global Voices, The Guardian, Today, Press TV, GISWatch, etc.
Demba completed his undergraduate studies in Political Science and English Language at the University of The Gambia and postgraduate studies in media, journalism and politics at Arhus University (Denmark) and University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
By: FactSpace West Africa Newsroom
