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PRESS RELEASE: 2022 African Fact-Checking Awards entries now open

The African Fact-Checking Awards, the longest-running awards programme honouring fact-checking journalism by the media in Africa, are in their ninth year. 

Entries for the 2022 awards are now open to journalists, journalism students, and a newly added category of professional fact-checkers. 

The need for accurate information in everyday life has spurred the growth of fact-checking in Africa and across the world. In 2021, we received a record number of 216 entries from 28 African countries. We expect even more in 2022. 

“Bad information thrives amid the lack of credible, reliable information, and this is where fact-checking plays a vital part in the information ecosystem."

“The growing number of entries over the last few years, coupled with the growth we have seen on the continent in terms of fact-checking, highlights the importance and need for accurate information across Africa,” says Noko Makgato, Africa Check’s executive director.

“This, we believe, will help better inform public discourse around issues related to health, education, politics and more. It will also strengthen democracy, allowing the public to make more informed decisions and holding those in power to account.”

Jean le Roux, the 2021 winner in the Fact-Check of the Year by a Working Journalist category, says: “In this digital age, we find ourselves in a world where our ability to differentiate fact from fiction is put to the test daily.”

He adds: “Bad information thrives amid the lack of credible, reliable information, and this is where fact-checking plays a vital part in the information ecosystem. Providing the public with a source of information they can trust, that is transparent in the methodologies it employs and provides sources for its findings, is invaluable at a time when we find our online attention more contested than ever.” 

To qualify, entries must have been first published or broadcast in the period from 1 August 2021 to 15 July 2022. The fact-check should conclude that a claim about an important topic, originating in or relevant to Africa, is either misleading or wrong. 

The awards have three categories, with honours going to a winner and a runner-up. The categories are:

  • Fact-Check of the Year by a Working Journalist 
  • Fact-Check of the Year by a Professional Fact-Checker
  • Fact-Check of the Year by a Student Journalist

The winners of the working journalist and professional fact-checker categories will each get a prize of US$3,000. The runners-up will receive $1,500. The winner of the student journalist category will be awarded $2,000, and the runner-up $1,000. 

Entries close at midnight GMT on 15 July 2022. For more information, and the terms and conditions, go to the Africa Check awards page.

For media enquiries, contact Africa Check outreach manager Dudu Mkhize at dudu@africacheck.org or +27 (0)76 694 9902. 

About Africa Check

Africa Check is a nonprofit organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. The goal of our work is to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent.

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