By Blessing Oladunjoye
Africa Check has invited entries from journalists for the African-Fact-checking Awards 2018.
Entries for the award must have been published or broadcast between 1 September 2017 and 15 August 2018 and should have exposed as misleading or wrong a claim on an important topic made by a public figure or institution in Africa.
The winners of the awards for the best fact-checking report and best fact-checking series by a working journalist will each get a prize of $2,000, while two runners-up will have$1,000 each.
The winner of the award for the best fact-checking report by a student journalist will get $1,000 while the prize for the runner-up is $500.
According to a press release issued by Noko Makgato, Deputy Director at Africa Check, the award entries for this year has new categories which include; fact-check of the year & runner-up (for a single piece of work), fact-checking series of the year & runner-up (for a body of work), fact-check of the year by a student & runner-up (a single piece of work done by a journalism student) and fact of the year (most striking statistic first published or broadcast that year – voted for by our readers).
Makgato stated that in the inaugural year of the award, there were 40 entries from 10 countries, while there were 159 entries from 25 countries in 2017.
“The year-on-year increase in entries since launching the awards is a clear signal that interest in fact-checking by the continent’s media is indeed growing. Our awards are helping to inspire journalists to take up the fight against misinformation,” said Makgato.
Africa Check is a non-profit organization set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa.
With its emergence in 2014, the African Fact-checking Awards are the only awards that honour journalism by Africa-based media in the emerging field of fact-checking.
For more information on what you can enter, go to the Africa Check website.
