Who Shapes What We Believe? Why West Africa Belongs at the Centre of the Information Integrity Debate ‎

Brussels hosted the sixth edition of Connecting Media Communities (CMC) on 29 and 30 October 2026 under the provocative theme: “Who Shapes What We Believe?” For West Africa, where trust in institutions is increasingly tested by coups, insecurity, and a flood of manipulated information, this is not merely an academic question. It is a daily reality.

What CMC 2026 Set Out to Do

According to the organisers, CMC serves as a platform where media communities from different regions come together to share knowledge, strengthen capacities, and build professional networks. Held at the BIP Meeting Centre on Rue Royale in Brussels, the two-day conference featured 29 sessions and attracted 67 registered participants, 60 of whom took part in matchmaking activities.

The programme focused on several critical issues shaping the global information landscape:

Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)
Artificial intelligence, verification, and information disruption
The credibility gap in audience engagement
Gender as an influence tactic
The power of digital platforms and the role of regulators
The sustainability and financing of independent media
Cross-border journalism and collaborative responses

All sessions were conducted in English, without translation services. This itself highlights a challenge that the West Africa sub-region knows all too well: many global conversations on information integrity take place in languages that affected communities neither speak nor understand.

Why the West Africa Sub-Region Matters

Few regions are as exposed to Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference as West Africa and the Sahel. In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, competing narratives about security, foreign partnerships, and governmental legitimacy often spread faster than professional newsrooms can verify them.

On the coastal front, countries such as Togo and Benin face the spillover effects of insecurity from the north, along with a growing battle over who gets to explain that insecurity to citizens. Ghana and Nigeria, with their large and highly active online populations, are simultaneously targets and amplifiers of information campaigns.

In such an environment, the credibility gap identified at CMC becomes particularly dangerous. When citizens lose confidence in traditional media, they increasingly turn to whoever reaches them first, whether it is a viral video, a WhatsApp voice note, or a sophisticated and well-funded influence network.

Local Trust as the First Line of Defence

My contribution to the conference, delivered remotely from Kumasi, centred on a simple but vital principle: trust built locally is the first line of defence against information manipulation.

Fact-checking initiatives and platform policies remain important, but manipulation does not begin in policy circles. It lands first in villages, markets, mosques, churches, and radio audiences.

Those best positioned to counter it are the people whom communities already trust:

Community leaders and respected local voices who can challenge falsehoods before they become accepted truths.
Local-language media operating in Fulfulde, Songhai, Bambara, Mooré, Tamasheq, Hausa, and many other languages that reach audiences often overlooked by English and French-language outlets.
Community radio stations, which remain among the most accessible and trusted sources of information across much of the Sahel.

External actors understand this reality. Influence operations increasingly target local languages and exploit local grievances because that is where trust resides. Any meaningful response must meet communities where they are, building resilience through local ownership rather than imported templates.

What Should Happen Next?

The discussions at CMC point to three practical priorities:

1. Invest in Local-Language Verification

Efforts to combat disinformation must extend beyond English and French. Verification tools, fact-checking initiatives, and media support programmes should be adapted to local languages and local contexts.

2. Sustain Independent Media

A financially fragile press is vulnerable to political pressure, commercial capture, and external influence. Long-term support for independent journalism is essential to safeguarding media credibility and editorial independence.

3. Build Stronger Cross-Border Partnerships

Countries including Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria face interconnected information challenges. Since foreign information manipulation ignores borders, responses must also transcend them. Regional cooperation among journalists, researchers, civil society organisations, and media institutions is no longer optional; it is necessary.

Conclusion

The answer to the question, “Who shapes what we believe?”, should not be determined by whoever possesses the largest budget or the most sophisticated influence machinery. It should be shaped by our journalists, our communities, and our own languages.

If CMC 2026 succeeds in creating more space for West African voices at the table where information integrity policies and responses are designed, then the conference will have achieved something truly worthwhile.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical and Science Communicator | Private Investigator | Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analyst | United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +233 55 527 5880

Sources

Connecting Media Communities 2026 Event Page and FAQ, B2Match
CMC 2026 Programme (PDF)
Organisers' contacts listed on the event page: GOPA (logistics) and the European External Action Service (content)