ACCRA. Chiagozie Nwonwu, Fauziyya Tukur and Olaronke Alo have been this 12 months’s winners of the ‘Truth Examine of the Yr by a Working Journalist’ class on the African Truth-Checking Awards ceremony in Ghana on 10 October.
Their winning entry addressed the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Bola Tinubu, the ruling get together’s candidate for Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
Nwonwu and his colleagues on the BBC’s world disinformation crew examined a declare by the authorized crew of considered one of Tinubu’s foremost rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Celebration, that Tinubu had cast his college diploma.
Their investigation found no evidence to help the allegation.
Nwonwu mentioned there had been a backlash from each the federal government and the general public alongside political traces in response to their findings. This included petitions to the BBC and vitriolic assaults on each social and conventional media.
“It will be important for journalists to know that fact-checking is just not at all times about if you maintain the federal government accountable, nevertheless it’s additionally about if you inform the reality, as a result of it is simply the reality,” Nwonwu mentioned as he accepted his award.
“We’re not beholden to excite or distort, we’re beholden to simply inform the reality.”
Ousmane Mamoudou’s work for Niger’s Studio Kalangou, investigating the accuracy of claims about the Niger military’s navy capabilities and Russian help, was runner-up on this class.
Skilled fact-checker class winner
Adnan Sidibe was the winner within the skilled fact-checker class. His fact-check targeted on the influence of the local weather disaster on girls, and led the United Nations Improvement Programme to withdraw from its on-line publications a much-cited statistic that “80% of these affected by the local weather disaster are girls”.
Sidibe is a researcher with FasoCheck in Burkina Faso. “A greater understanding of the influence of local weather change on girls will allow insurance policies to be developed and actions to be taken which are genuinely tailor-made to their wants,” he mentioned in his entry.
Sidibe mentioned the awards represented “the head of fact-checking in Africa” and gave visibility and worth to fact-checking journalism.
Simbiat Bakare of Nigeria’s Dubawa and James Okong’o of the AFP have been the runners-up. Their work targeted on a social media swindler faking illness to scam women and the dangerous claims of a Kenyan anti-vaxxer doctor, respectively.
Pupil class winner
The winner within the pupil journalist class was Rita Enemuru from Nigeria. A pupil on the College of Oyo, Enemuru fact-checked widespread claims about mandatory DNA testing for new-born infants.
The College of Mauritius crew of Caulleechurn Diksha, Deenoo Mansha, Kishto Preetish and Lallmamode Lloyd have been the runners-up on this class.
Their detailed fact-check weighed up claims made on the marketing campaign path about the price of dwelling within the island nation forward of the overall election in November 2024.
The awards ceremony was a part of the Africa Information Summit organised by Africa Check, which introduced collectively 200 individuals from fact-checking organisations, academia and expertise giants.
Truth-checkers concern declaration
The annual summit addresses rising points reminiscent of synthetic intelligence, perception programs in disinformation, and the way forward for fact-checking on the continent.
The assembly additionally issued a declaration during which the continent’s fact-checkers highlighted the hurt of false info and the challenges of fact-checking in an setting the place nearly all of folks have restricted entry to the web and to dependable info.
They resolved to collaborate extra to disrupt dangerous info, interact companions, expertise platforms and governments on AI-driven options, enhance digital literacy and construct programs to strengthen Africa’s info resilience and integrity.
For any queries contact Africa Examine on [email protected]
