EPP Puts Media and Disinformation at the Center of Its Africa Strategy, Says Konrad Adenauer Foundation Director
BRUSSELS — The European People’s Party, the largest and most influential center-right political family in the European Parliament, unveiled a sweeping new Africa strategy on 14 August 2026. Deep inside the document, alongside familiar commitments on migration, climate, and trade, rests a section that may initially attract less attention but could prove decisive: a comprehensive agenda for media and disinformation. According to Hendrik Sittig, director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s media programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, the section is far from an afterthought. It is a direct response to what he described as a crucial development in Africa’s political and digital landscape. With the continent experiencing one of the fastest rates of internet adoption in the world, and with a youthful population increasingly turning to social media and messaging apps for news, public discourse in Africa has entered an intensely volatile phase. The EPP, which groups Christian democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative parties across Europe, has rarely devoted such detailed consideration to media policy in Africa. The new strategy marks a recognition that the future of African governance will be shaped by information, and that Europe’s own security and economic interests are inseparable from the battle for credible reporting, open debate, and honest elections. Sittig, whose foundation has been present in Sub-Saharan Africa for decades and works closely with journalists, media houses, and civil society organizations, argued that the EPP’s move reflects a profound shift in how European conservatives understand the continent. The era in which Africa was viewed mainly as a source of raw materials or a route for migration is over. The strategy now treats the digital public square as central, and the danger of disinformation as one of the greatest threats to democratic stability and sustainable development in Africa.
The “crucial development” that Sittig identifies is the convergence of rising digital connectivity and growing vulnerability to malicious manipulation. Across Africa, traditional media still matter, but mobile phones are now the primary gateway to information. WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, and Facebook occupy the same space as newspapers, radio stations, and television networks. This shift has expanded civic participation and created new economic opportunities, especially among the under-35 population that makes up the majority of the continent. But it has also allowed false narratives to spread at extraordinary speed. Election seasons have become particularly dangerous. In countries from Nigeria to Kenya and from South Africa to Ethiopia, fabricated videos, doctored images, and viral hoaxes have been used to inflame ethnic tension, discredit electoral commissions, and undermine public confidence in democratic institutions. The EPP strategy describes an emerging “disinformation complex” in which foreign powers, domestic political operatives, private consulting firms, and anonymous social media accounts work together to manipulate public opinion. The document is especially concerned with state-backed information operations from Russia and other actors that have expanded their footprint in Africa through media outlets, mercenary networks, and covert digital campaigns. These operations often exploit anti-Western sentiment, colonial memory, and post-independence grievances to weaken the influence of the European Union and its member states. At the same time, the strategy acknowledges that disinformation in Africa cannot be blamed solely on external forces. Authoritarian governments and competitive autocrats have learned to deploy the same techniques to silence critics, jail journalists, and distort election results under the pretext of fighting cybercrime or protecting national security. For Sittig, what makes this moment urgent is the scale of the digital transformation: tens of millions of Africans are coming online every year, and without a coherent European response, the digital space will become increasingly hostile to democratic values, independent media, and the credibility of the continent’s emerging information economy.
The EPP’s strategy proposes an ambitious, multi-layered response. At the heart of its media section is the demand for increased and more flexible funding for independent journalism. The strategy calls on European governments and institutions to protect journalists who face threats from state and non-state actors, including emergency visas, relocation grants, and practical support in the form of digital safety training. It also pushes for investment in local investigative reporting, because well-produced journalism remains the most effective countermeasure to falsehood. A second pillar is media literacy. The EPP wants African school curricula to include critical thinking and digital citizenship modules from the earliest levels, so that young citizens learn to question sources, verify facts, and recognize manipulation. The strategy proposes that media literacy programs be funded through European development assistance, in partnership with African education ministries and regional organizations. A third pillar is regulation of digital platforms. The EPP looks to the European Union’s Digital Services Act as a reference model, arguing that Africa cannot rely on the self-regulation of multinational technology companies. The strategy advocates for transparent rules on advertising, political content, algorithmic ranking, and response times for flagged misinformation. Importantly, the EPP attempts to distinguish between legitimate regulation and censorship. Sittig stressed in his commentary that the goal is not to give governments new tools to silence independent voices. Instead, the party group favors independent regulators, due process, judicial oversight, and clear safeguards for freedom of expression. The strategy also proposes an Africa-Europe rapid response network that would bring together fact-checkers, media councils, and cyber-security agencies to alert each other about coordinated disinformation campaigns, especially in the run-up to elections. Such a network would allow European and African partners to see the same data, trace the origin of viral content, and expose malicious operations in real time.
Sittig’s involvement in the debate gives the EPP strategy practical grounding. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is one of Europe’s most important political foundations, linked historically to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and sharing the broader values of the EPP. Yet in Africa, the foundation has built a reputation for patient, locally rooted work. Its media programs in Sub-Saharan Africa have operated in some of the most difficult environments, supporting independent radio stations, training journalists in conflict zones, and monitoring press freedom violations. Sittig has directed the media programme for Sub-Saharan Africa through an era of major political upheaval, and his analysis carries weight in conservative policy circles. He has argued that the EPP’s strategy is a step forward but cannot be allowed to become a purely rhetorical gesture. The strategy must be implemented in ways that genuinely share power with African partners. Sittig cautioned that European political foundations and governments must resist the temptation to export European models without adjustment. For example, the Digital Services Act is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and Africa’s media ecosystems are far from homogeneous. What works in a relatively open democracy like Senegal may not work in an environment where political parties and ethnic identities are deeply entangled. Sittig also called for support to African-led initiatives, including the continental fact-checking movement, regional networks of independent media owners, and community-based platforms that operate in less widely spoken languages. In his view, the EPP should not view African civil society as a passive recipient of European assistance but as the primary driver of change. His intervention can also be read as a broader challenge to European conservatives: if the EPP wants to defend democratic values at home, it must champion them consistently in Africa, even when that means criticizing friendly governments that have become increasingly authoritarian.
The new strategy comes at a delicate moment for Europe-Africa relations. Migration remains one of the most sensitive issues in every European election, and African leaders often rightly complain that the EU treats the continent as a security problem rather than a partner with its own interests. The EPP’s strategy attempts to rebalance this relationship by focusing on shared opportunities in energy, digital infrastructure, trade, and green transition. But it also recognizes that disinformation can undermine all of those areas. If false narratives convince African citizens that European investment in solar power is a form of neocolonial extraction, or that climate policies are designed to keep Africa poor, then the EU’s entire economic agenda will fail. Disinformation, in that sense, acts as a threat multiplier. The EPP calls for media resilience to become a standard condition in development agreements, trade deals, and digital partnerships. It wants the European Commission to negotiate directly with technology platforms on Africa-specific problems, such as viral political propaganda, electoral manipulation, and the use of encrypted messaging services for hate speech. The strategy also proposes an Africa-Europe media innovation fund to finance experimental pilot projects, from AI-driven fact-checking tools to audience-building models for independent newsrooms. Given the EPP’s status as the largest political group in the European Parliament, it is in a strong position to push for these proposals in the EU budget and in the Parliament’s own resolutions. Sittig sees this as an essential opportunity: the European Parliament cannot simply recommend action from the sidelines. It must use its power over funds, its oversight of the European Commission, and its relationships with national parliaments to ensure that media and disinformation issues receive the same priority as infrastructure, defense, and agriculture.
Yet the challenges of implementation are substantial. Many African governments are deeply suspicious of European initiatives in the media field, and for understandable historical reasons. Colonial and post-colonial interventions, funded by Western governments and foundations, have often come with hidden agendas or cultural imperialism. The EPP strategy tries to address this by using the language of partnership, mutual respect, and local ownership, but translating that language into practice is extremely difficult. The funding issue is also unresolved. Media development remains a tiny fraction of European aid budgets, and it is hard to measure in the short-term metrics that politicians and taxpayers expect. A workshop on media literacy, a grant to a cross-border investigative team, or a new platform for journalists in a conflict zone produce valuable results over years, not months. The rapid pace of technological change makes the challenge even greater. The next few years will bring more sophisticated AI-generated audio and video, increasingly personalized micro-targeting, and new social media platforms that are built for virality, not truth. No static strategy can anticipate every development. Sittig’s analysis therefore emphasizes the need for continuous learning, constant contact with African partners, and a willingness to adapt. The ultimate test, he says, is political will. If the EPP can sustain its commitment to media and disinformation as core issues in EU-Africa policy, through budgeting cycles, election campaigns, and changing global priorities, then the strategy may indeed become a model for conservative and Christian democratic parties around the world. If that commitment fades once the novelty wears off, the strategy will be remembered as a promising document that failed to live up to its own rhetoric. For now, the EPP has done something significant: it has acknowledged that the contest for influence in the twenty-first century will be decided in the space of information, and that Africa has become one of the most important battlefields. The next decade will reveal whether Europe’s oldest political family can match its words with enduring action, and whether Africa’s citizens are given the support they need to defend their own public sphere against those who prefer darkness to light, confusion to clarity, and division to common purpose.