On this edition of PEACE TALKS RADIO, we’ll dive into a deeper understanding of some terms we’re all now much more familiar with terms like misinformation, disinformation, and even “fake news”, then we’ll look at ways to block their negative impacts -sometimes deadly impact - in some parts of the world.

With the ubiquity of social media, any information has the potential to spread quickly, whether it’s true or not. False information on online platforms like Facebook and Twitter - whether planted intentionally, or passed along unintentionally - has been associated with affecting elections, public health debates, and in some cases has been directly linked to genocidal wars in countries like Myanmar and Ethiopia.  None of this is exactly new.  As correspondent Danielle Price and her guests will help us learn, humans have been using what’s been called more recently “fake news” to win conflicts since we’ve been able to communicate – over whatever platform has been available at the time. By understanding how we are primed as a species to use and experience false information, we can check our impulses and use the tools available to us to stop its influence.

On today’s PEACE TALKS RADIO episode correspondent Danielle Preiss explores misinformation with three guests who talk about its history and what we can do about it in the hyper connected times we live in.   We’ll hear from Berhan Taye, an independent peace researcher who investigates the relationship between technology, society, and social justice. Taye has focused on the digital landscape in Africa and communication access in Ethiopia, where misinformation has fueled violent conflict.  Also, Jerusalem Girmay, the Chief Communications Officer for Omna Tigray, a resource center that advocates for human rights and economic development in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Tigray has been the center of a genocidal war since 2020 and misinformation has played a role in inciting violence. Girmay is also a member of the Tigrayan diaspora in the U.S.  Also on the program, Dr. Michael Bang Petersen, a professor of political science at Denmark’s Aarhus University. His research focuses on evolutionary psychology and misinformation and explores the way humans have always used falsehoods to build stronger groups and protect ourselves.

On this edition of Peace Talks Radio, we’ll take a look at transitional justice through Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. We’ve looked at the topic of transitional justice in a 2021 episode, but now look at different examples of Commissions around the globe. From the most famous historical example of the Commission established to investigate abuses under the Apartheid era in South Africa, we’ll look at the evolution of the tool in countries like Gambia and Colombia following conflict and transitions of power.

A new trend is emerging of western democratic states establishing Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to look at historical abuses against indigenous and minority populations. Australia, Canada and Greenland have all concluded such Commissions in recent years.

But we’ll take a deep dive into the Commission process in Norway, which is completing in 2023. From the mid-1800s to late in the 20th century, Norway forced assimilation of the indigenous Sámi population through an official “Norwegianization” policy. Traditionally reindeer herders across the Nordic region, the Sámi were forced to give up their own culture and language, particularly through a system of residential schools for Sámi children. Now, Norway is confronting the harms under that policy and its lasting legacy.

Danielle Preiss talks with three experts who study transitional justice processes and their evolution including Dr. Elin Skaar, research professor at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway, Ereshnee Naidu-Silverman, Program Director of the Global Transitional Justice Initiative at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and Dr. Gloria Ayee, a political scientist and lecturer at Harvard University.