In an era of misinformation, disinformation, and growing distrust in digital platforms, how does Wikipedia continue to stand as one of the most trusted sources of knowledge online? In this episode of WikiAfrica Hour, we explore how Wikipedia fights false and misleading information through community-driven governance, transparent policies, and collective responsibility. Our conversation dives into real challenges such as edit conflicts, bias, and representation, while also reflecting on the role of local languages, artificial intelligence, and media literacy in shaping the future of trustworthy knowledge. As a closing episode, this discussion highlights not only how Wikipedia protects the truth—but why open, collaborative knowledge remains more important than ever.

Our guests are...

• Bassem Marwan Fleifel, Researcher specializing in Ottoman history. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law, followed by a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary History from Beirut Arab University. He published five academic papers, as well as five books, and a number of journalistic articles. He has been an editor on Arabic Wikipedia since September 2007 and has served as an administrator since 2010. He currently holds the record for the highest number of edits on Arabic Wikipedia.

• Adélaïde Calais, Project manager for Francophonie and diversity, for Wikimedia France.

• Martins Ayotunde, a fact-checker and investigative journalist with over 7 years experience. He currently works with the Academy team at Code for Africa where he designs and delivers training programs on mis/disinformation, open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigations, data journalism, and AI deployment in newsrooms. He has conducted trainings for Wikimedians across Africa notable among which is a training on electoral integrity for Wikipedia editors in Ghana and a presentation/panel session with WMF at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, Zambia.

Hosted by

• Michel Bakni, He holds a Ph.D in Electronics. He is a lecturer in ESTIA Institute of Technology in France. He is a long-time Wikipedian with 10 years of contribution. His +120k edits in the Arabic Wikipedia focus on Feature contents. Michel is also a graphics maker with more than +3k images uploaded to Commons.