The Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Information yesterday launched its own website to manage the flow of information and also combat misinformation.
The website (www.ghanatoday.gov.gh) is intended to aid the Department in the fight against misinformation by providing direct information from Ministries, Departments and Agencies about the works of government and becoming a repository of all happenings in government.
It is also expected to provide facts about government projects and programmes, full texts of all speeches by heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, official communications and publications, policies and program documents to reduce the level of misrepresentations and sometimes outright misinformation online.
Launching the website at the Ministry of Information’s press center in Accra yesterday, Minister for Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah was confident that the ISD would be able to provide timely and credible information from across the country.
The Minister’s confidence steams from the fact that the ISD has department and officers in all 16 regions and 261 districts and would be able to feed the website with accurate and timely information.
The Minister also noted that the ISD now has a state-of-the-art research department, an ultra-modern Public Relations Coordinating Division and a Media Division which will ensure that the Department becomes a very vibrant institution for the dissemination of authentic information on government in order to keep the public well informed.
Speaking on why the ISD is embarking on this project, Minister Oppong Nkrumah indicated that a significant section of the Ghanaian population now rely on online platforms and other social media platforms for information.
He, however, observed that some unscrupulous persons now use many of these portals and social media platforms to propagate falsehood and misinformation.
The Minister noted that such misinformation if not managed will undermine Ghana’s democracy hence the launch of the website.
Minister Oppong Nkrumah said the levels of misinformation the country is experiencing today would not have happened had successive administrations and governments equipped the ISD. He also bemoaned the inability of the department to keep up with the ever-changing media landscape and the technology that goes with it. He, therefore, called for the support of all for the ISD now that the government has resourced it.
The Minister urged that media to use the platform to authenticate information while he called on the general public to utilize the platform to validate information about government works that they may come across.
“To our colleagues in the media, we hope this becomes a useful tool that makes your all-important work easier. To the general public, reach out to www.ghanatoday.gov.gh if you want to validate the information about Government works that you may come across,” the Minister said.
The Acting Chief Information Officer, Mr David Owusu Amoah, on his part said that the ISD cannot control information due to media pluralism and information overload.
He said the ISD can, however, manage the kinds of information that are churned out and was very delighted that the website has been set up for that purpose. He said the ISD will ensure that its long standing values including objectivity are exhibited on the website.
