Image: Namibia Fact Check
With electioneering already underway for the November 2024 elections, here’s how what you can do to cut through the noise
Do you want to evaluate for yourself whether what a politician or political party is saying or promising is fact-based or credible?
With the political promises and propaganda set to increase as Namibia moves closer to the 27 November 2024 parliamentary and presidential elections, you would do well to arm yourself with some basic skills to be able to fact check and verify the claims, statements and promises of politicians and political parties looking to grab your vote.
Following is some quick guidance on how you can start arming yourself.
Fact checking a politician
The easiest and best way to get to the facts is always to ask some basic questions. And we have some you can use.
Most of these questions and the related guidance are from a presentation, titled ‘How to fact check a politician‘, that was created by South African journalist Raymond Joseph and Nigerian fact checker David Ajikobi for Africa Check.
The questions you should ask are:
- Is what they are saying a claim or a statement of fact?
- Does it matter? (In other words, is it relevant to the audience they are addressing?)
- Are they claiming credit that is not due to them?
- Are they or have they presented evidence of what they claim?
Following are some pointers to answer the above question when you’re setting out to fact check a politician:
- Seek out evidence that either supports or debunks the politician’s claim
- Only use reliable sources to test the politician’s claim – reliable sources would include government reports, academic studies, research briefing papers, etc.
- If you find evidence, use it to test the claim
- Understand why someone might believe the politician’s claim.
What not to fact check
While it’s good to fact check what others, especially politicians, go around saying, there are some things not worth fact checking. Do not fact check:
- People’s opinions
- People’s religious beliefs
- The future – if something hasn’t happened yet it can’t be fact checked.
Fact checking political parties
When it comes to political parties and their claims and promises, which are presented as election manifestos, here’s what to do:
- Read election manifestos carefully and isolate specific promises
- In the case of the ruling party, compare previous election promises to what they are promising this time
- Also in the case of the ruling party, compare what they promised last time to what they actually delivered
- Look for reliable sources to test the political party’s claims and promises – reliable sources would include government reports, academic studies, research briefing papers, etc.
- Try and follow election related news coverage on a regular basis so as to be up to date on what’s happening on the electoral landscape and what political party officials are saying and to whom.
And remember … you can’t fact check the future.