Now in their fifth year, the African Fact-Checking Awards are the only awards that each year honour journalism by Africa-based media in the growing field of fact-checking.
They continue to grow. This year, we received over 150 entries from more than 20 countries, from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Egypt to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Chair of the jury for the awards, Prof Franz Kruger, highlighted the quality of fact-checking by students: “In general, there was some really good work. We were particularly struck by the student entries, which were very strong. In some cases, they were well ahead of entries from professional journalists.”
The winners and runners-up have been named at a ceremony in Johannesburg.
Winners and runners-up
‘Best fact-check’
- Winner: C Omeje, International Centre For Investigative Reporting (ICIR), “FACT CHECK: Did Nigeria record a reduction in preschool enrolment?”
- Runner-up: J Norwood-Young, Daily Maverick, “#CapeWaterGate: The figures prove that Capetonians are saving water”
‘Best student journalist fact-check’
- Winner: M Ngom, CESTI, “Dakar n’est pas la deuxième ville au monde la plus polluée”
- Runner-up: I Alawode, Dubawa, “Does Nigeria Have The Highest Number Of Out-Of-School Children In The World?”
The jury decided not to award the ‘best body of work’ category, due to an insufficient number of entries for this category and the unsatisfactory standard of those entries.
Jury
- Prof Franz Kruger (Chair of the jury): head of WITS Journalism, and Director of the Radio Academy at the University of the Witwatersrand
- Boureima Salouka: respected journalist in Burkina Faso, working for DW Akademie as a trainer and as a correspondent for Africanews Television and Vatican Radio.
- Govind Ethiraj: founder of the Indian fact-checking sites FactChecker.in and BOOM and a board member of the International Fact-Checking Network.
- Maureen Popoola: senior trainer with the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, in Lagos.
- Sophie Nicholson: social media editor at the AFP news agency and leads the agency’s new fact-checking platform AFP Fact Check.
- Yvonne Okwara: TV journalist and anchor with Citizen TV in Kenya.
Entries to the awards are judged on the following four criteria:
- The significance for wider society of the claim investigated
- How the claim was tested against the available evidence
- How well the piece presented the evidence for and against the claim
- The impact that the publication had on public debate on the topic.
Fact of the year
What’s the most striking fact of 2018, as voted for by you, our readers? It’s “90.8% of Nigerians do not have safe drinking water.” You can read the full report here.
Voting for the Fact of the year – the most striking statistic published on africacheck.org between September 2017 and August 2018 – closed on 5 October.
Sponsors
This year’s awards are being held with the generous support of Absa.
