Last Updated on May 2, 2023
The African Fact-Checking Awards, the longest-running awards programme honouring fact-checking journalism by the media in Africa, are in their tenth year.
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
Awards
- 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.
Eligibility
- Open to journalists, journalism students, and professional fact-checkers – across the continent.
- Entries must have been first published or broadcast in the period from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
- Be the original work of the individual or team identified in the entry form as the author.
- Expose a claim on an important topic that originated in or is relevant to Africa as misleading or wrong.
- Fact-checks can be published/broadcast in any language, but entry forms must be completed in either English or French. However, should the fact-checking report not be in English or French, a written translation must be submitted with the entry.
Judging Criteria
Entries are judged based on the following criteria:
- Significance: The significance for wider society of the claim/statement investigated. How much does the topic matter to society at large and how serious could the consequences be if the claim wasn’t fact-checked?
- Testing: How was the claim tested against the available evidence? Fact-checkers must take a long, hard look at the claim/statement that was made. Fact-checking entails rigorously sifting through the publicly available evidence for and against the claim. This should be done in a way that is fair to the person or institution who made the claim and strict in assessing the evidence.
- Presentation: How well does the piece present the evidence for and against the claim? A good fact-checking report is structured in such a way that it’s understandable and makes the topic accessible to the widest possible public.
- Impact: The impact that the fact-check had on public debate on the topic. Did it lead to a correction, did it have significant reach, or was it shared by other organisations or members of the media, for instance?
Application
Submit applications before midnight GMT on 30 June 2023. Late entries will not be accepted.
For more information, visit African Fact-Checking Awards.
Deadline: June 30, 2023