First African Fact-Checking Awards in Nairobi

On 14^th of November the first ever African Fact-Checking Awards took place in Nairobi. The event was sponsored by the AFP Foundation, the media training arm of the AFP news agency, and Africa Check, a non-partisan organization founded in June 2012 with the stated aim “to fact-check claims made in the public arena, impartially and fairly”.

The project was conducted in partnership with the journalism department of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and, after two years of full activity, decided to establish the awards in order to promote “a new and important form of journalism on the continent”. According to the association’s principles, in fact, one of the main purposes is to “foster a culture of accuracy among the next generation of working journalists”.

After receiving more than 40 pieces of work by candidates from 10 countries across Africa, the jury, chaired by African Media Initiative’s CEO Eric Chinje, selected Edem Srem, Andoh Appiah and their team from multiworld.com in Ghana as the winners. Their report, called “Trading Ghana’s Water for Gold”, deals with the misleading claims by the government to have stopped the risky practice of alluvial gold mining, which is destroying many Ghanaian rivers.

As reward, they received a total of 2,000 euro, while the joint runners-up Paul Shalala of Zambia Broadcasting Corporation (“The impact of Multi-National Mining Investment on Food Security in Zambia”) and Victor Amadala of kenyakidz.com (“Doctors dispel myth of plastic teeth in babies”) received 1,000 euro each.
 
Sources: http://news.yahoo.com, http://africacheck.org