From two desks in a college division to 4 African nation places of work and a revered presence in a worldwide community of fact-checkers, that is the story of Africa Examine’s first decade.
“We will not forgive the one who began this hearsay,” stated Aminu Ahmed Tudun-Wada.
That is how Africa Examine founder Peter Cunliffe-Jones begins an account of the inspiration for the continent’s first impartial fact-checking organisation.
Tudun-Wada is from Kano state in northern Nigeria. On the age of three, in 1963, polio completely paralysed his legs. The polio vaccine turned out there a couple of years later.
“In 2002, when his son Umar was born, an unfounded hearsay about polio vaccination unfold within the area and led authorities to ban the vaccine,” Cunliffe-Jones writes. “Quickly afterwards, child Umar contracted polio too.”
Tudun-Wada now heads a pro-vaccine motion.
Within the yr Umar turned 10, Africa Examine was based. Ten years after that, we’re a part of a vibrant worldwide fact-checking group. We kind truth from fiction, and assist media throughout Africa do the identical.
This is a timeline of our work.
2011
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist Peter Cunliffe-Jones develops a proposal for Africa’s first fact-checking challenge. The proposal is supported by the AFP Basis.
Wits College in Johannesburg, South Africa, agrees to host Africa Examine in its Wits Journalism division.
2012
April 2012 – A “challenge to develop an African community of fact-checking web sites and prepare future African journalists in fact-checking” is one among 14 winners of the Information Innovation Contest held by Austria’s Worldwide Press Institute. A fledgling Africa Examine is awarded US$50,000 in seed funding from Google.
June 2012 – The Africa Examine group curiosity firm (CIC) authorized entity is established within the UK. The AFP Basis duties Peter Cunliffe-Jones with the launch of Africa Examine.
September 2012 – Wits Journalism’s Ruth Becker turns into Africa Examine’s first editor, on a part-time foundation. She and researcher Ntombi Dyosop assist put together the Africa Examine web site for launch.
October 2012 – Wits Journalism professor Anton Harber launches the web site on the African Investigative Journalism Convention in Johannesburg.
2013
February 2013 – Africa Examine fact-checks its first state of the nation tackle (Sona) by a South African president – this time, Jacob Zuma. Sona fact-checking turns into an annual challenge at Africa Examine’s South African workplace.
March 2013 – Julian Rademeyer turns into Africa Examine’s first full-time editor. Kate Wilkinson joins as a researcher. The 2 are primarily based at Wits College in South Africa.
2014
November 2014 – Africa Examine and the AFP Basis launch the primary African Reality-Checking Awards. The winners – impartial Ghanaian filmmakers Edem Srem and Gifty Andoh Appiah – are introduced at an occasion hosted by the African Media Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya. The awards have been held yearly since, with an ever-increasing variety of candidates.
2015
February 2015 – TRi Info, Africa Examine’s coaching unit, is established. The unit educates media employees throughout Africa in fact-checking, encouraging the follow on the continent.
April 2015 – The Africa Examine Belief is registered as a authorized entity in South Africa. It oversees our operations within the nation.
September 2015 – Assane Diagne, primarily based in Senegal and beforehand from Senegalese Press Company, turns into Africa Examine’s first francophone editor. He begins work on the French-language Africa Examine web site.
September 2015 – Africa Examine turns into a founding member and first chair of the advisory board of the Worldwide Reality-Checking Community, or IFCN. Based mostly on the nonprofit Poynter Institute within the US, the IFCN brings fact-checkers internationally collectively within the world struggle in opposition to misinformation and disinformation.
October 2015 – Anim van Wyk turns into the chief editor of Africa Examine, on the South African workplace.
October 2015 – Africa Examine’s second workplace is established in Dakar, Senegal. The workforce is hosted at Dakar’s Ejicom faculty of journalism. Assane Diagne is the editor.
November 2015 – The Senegal workplace’s French-language web site is launched at Africa Examine’s second annual fact-checking awards in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ben Ezeamalu of Nigeria’s Premium Occasions wins the awards’ high spot.
2016
June 2016 – Africa Examine and the South African radio station Energy FM launch a late-night fact-checking present.
November 2016 – Africa Examine opens a 3rd workplace, in Lagos, Nigeria. David Ajikobi is appointed as Nigeria editor.
2017
January 2017 – Africa Examine’s fourth workplace is about up in Nairobi, Kenya. Alphonce Shiundu is appointed as Kenya editor.
April 2017 – The primary ever Worldwide Reality-checking Day is held to enlist peculiar folks in fact-checking efforts.
July 2017 – Africa Examine and the KTN Information Kenya channel put fact-checking on primetime TV.
November 2017 – Africa Examine hosts the inaugural Africa Info community assembly in Johannesburg, South Africa. For the primary time, fact-checkers from throughout the continent come collectively to debate the struggle in opposition to misinformation and disinformation in Africa.
2018
February 2018 – We launch our fact-checking fellowship programme, with up-and-coming fact-checkers from a number of African nations given immersive coaching at Africa Examine’s nation places of work.
Might 2018 – Africa Examine’s Promise tracker is launched to maintain politicians trustworthy forward of nationwide elections in Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal.
June 2018 – Africa Examine joins International Reality 5 in Rome, Italy. It is the fifth annual gathering of the Worldwide Reality-Checking Community. Africa Examine wins the award for the perfect correction.
June 2018 – Africa Examine’s Nigeria workplace launches a weekly fact-checking programme on Radio One 103.5 FM Lagos.
July 2018 – TRi Info, Africa Examine’s coaching unit, is registered in South Africa as a for-profit firm. The corporate’s earnings assist maintain Africa Examine’s work.
August 2018 – Africa Examine companions with main Nigerian newspapers – the Guardian, Enterprise Day, Day by day Belief and Punch – to convey fact-checking to a broader viewers.
September 2018 – The Africa Examine Basis is registered as a authorized entity in Kenya.
October 2018 – Africa Examine joins the Meta (then Fb) impartial third-party fact-checking programme. This offers us the sources to fact-check dangerous claims on social media. It additionally, with TRi Info, helps improve our earned earnings.
2019
January 2019 – Samba Badji turns into editor of Africa Examine’s French-language web site in Senegal.
January 2019 – Forward of South Africa’s nationwide elections, Africa Examine and Metropolis Press launch the #ElectionCheck marketing campaign. The marketing campaign produces a collection of particular studies fact-checking guarantees and claims by the ruling African Nationwide Congress, in addition to the opposition Democratic Alliance and Financial Freedom Fighters.
February 2019 – Data Finder, a instrument that helps folks discover dependable on-line details about sure nations on the continent, is launched on Africa Examine’s English-language web site.
February 2019 – We fact-check a South African president’s state of the nation tackle (Sona) reside, in partnership with the eNCA TV channel. Africa Examine has examined Sona claims since 2013, however that is the primary time we do it because it occurs.
March 2019 – A South Africa-registered belief turns into Africa Examine’s controlling physique, with the UK-registered CIC shifting to a assist function. A brand new board is fashioned, with members from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.
April 2019 – A month-to-month French-language fact-checking present is launched on Radio France Internationale. The challenge is supported by Africa Examine, AFP Factuel and Observateurs de France 24.
Might 2019 – Africa Examine and South African podcasting firm Quantity launch What’s Crap on WhatsApp? This lighthearted voice-note podcast, despatched by way of WhatsApp, discusses and debunks false claims circulating on the favored messaging app. The podcast goes on to win the 2019 Poynter IFCN Reality Ahead Fund Award.
Might 2019 – The UK’s Full Reality and Open Knowledge Institute, Argentina’s Chequeado, and Africa Examine are, in partnership, one among 20 Google AI Influence Problem grantees for the yr. The challenge makes use of AI – synthetic intelligence – and machine studying to extract statements claimed as truth from on-line media and parliamentary data, permitting us to fact-check the statements.
June 2019 – Africa Examine hosts Africa Info 2, the second Africa Info community assembly, in Cape City, South Africa.
June 2019 – Noko Makgato is appointed as Africa Examine’s government director.
July 2019 – Lee Mwiti turns into Africa Examine’s chief editor. Kate Wilkinson is appointed as deputy chief editor.
September 2019 – Infothèque is launched as a information to French-language sources of dependable info, supporting the English-language Data Finder. A #YouAsked tab is added to Data Finder and Infothèque, answering customers’ questions.
September 2019 – The Mannequin United Nations, primarily based on the South African Institute of Worldwide Affairs at Wits College since 1994, appoints Africa Examine to offer fact-checking and media literacy coaching to the highschool college students in its programme.
September 2019 – Africa Examine contributes to an inquiry into media ethics and credibility, facilitated by the South African Nationwide Editors’ Discussion board.
October 2019 – Africa Examine and the Media Council of Kenya signal an settlement to work collectively to assist prepare journalists in fact-checking, and encourage mainstream media shops to transparently right errors and arrange fact-checking desks of their newsrooms.
October 2019 – A quiz is added to the Data Finder and Infothèque instruments to draw customers and assist them retain correct info.
2020
January 2020 – Matter of Reality with Africa Examine, a present broadcast on South Africa’s 702 and Cape Discuss radio stations each two weeks, is launched. Within the following months, it debunks false details about the rising Covid pandemic.
March 2020 – We set up the place of outreach coordinator, who contacts the sources of false or deceptive claims and requests public corrections. This leads to Africa Examine securing its highest variety of corrections and withdrawals since 2017. Our first outreach coordinator is Thipe Maelane.
March 2020 – Africa Examine companions with Google to pilot two instruments in Nigeria – Query Hub and Tendencies – to discover how they may also help inform editorial selections on which claims to fact-check, and slender down content material to give attention to.
June 2020 – The primary extremely partaking first episode of our #KeepTheFactsGoing media literacy collection is distributed to our WhatsApp broadcast lists. The podcast model can be printed on our web site and SoundCloud, and broadcast by radio stations. #KeepTheFactsGoing content material is then tailored to video format, uploaded on YouTube, with our workforce presenting step-by-step directions on sensible methods to kind truth from fiction. Matters embrace how one can confirm breaking information and examine Twitter accounts.
October 2020 – We pilot AI instruments, together with the Alpha declare detection instrument. That is designed to assist fact-checking organisations make higher selections, regardless of restricted time and sources. The challenge is funded with a grant received in collaboration with Full Reality within the UK and Chequeado in Argentina.
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December 2020 – Our coronavirus fact-checks are included within the BBC’s Covid-19 in Africa library and the Worldwide Reality-Checking Community’s CoronaVirusFacts Alliance database of fact-checks from over 70 nations.
December 2020 – Our Data Finder and Infothèque instruments develop quickly to cowl six nations, with Ghana and Zimbabwe now included. That is because of partnerships with ZimFact in Zimbabwe, GhanaFact in Ghana and Dubawa in Nigeria and Ghana.
December 2020 – We associate with the World Well being Group’s Africa Infodemic Response Alliance within the Viral Info Africa challenge, which makes use of the insights and attain of a community of 14 organisations to counter well being misinformation and “inoculate” folks in opposition to falsehoods. The alliance is praised as the primary to convey collectively worldwide and regional organisations and fact-checking teams, combining knowledge and behavioural science.
2021
January 2021 – The Africa Examine web site is overhauled to create a greater expertise for guests.
April 2021 – We launch the Reality Ambassadors Programme, which makes use of a community of correct info “champions” who share fact-checking and media literacy content material in native languages on social media. Eighty-nine Reality Ambassadors are chosen and geared up to independently spot and deal with misinformation and disinformation.
July 2021 – The #KnowtheFactsGettheVax multimedia marketing campaign is launched. The video collection helps the general public study extra about Covid-19 and its vaccines, and how one can perceive and use essential healthcare info.
July 2021 – For the primary time, we obtain greater than 200 entries for the African Reality-Checking Awards. A complete of 216 fact-checkers and journalists from 23 nations throughout the continent submit their work for the eighth version of the awards.
September 2021 – The interactive radio dramas On Prime Di Matta (Pidgin) and Diisoo Ngir Aaru (Wolof for Be a part of Forces to Defend) are launched to debunk Covid-19 vaccine misinformation in Nigeria and Senegal.
November 2021 – The #StandUp4Facts marketing campaign begins, offering our Reality Ambassadors with extra partaking content material to distribute to their networks. Comedians, satirists and content material creators – comparable to Schalk Bezuidenhout and Esther “Lerato” Kazungu – create quick movies that deal with misinformation and its related themes.
2022
February 2022 – Our outreach challenge ramped up with the appointment of Dudu Mkhize to steer the work of actively partaking sources of misinformation and searching for behaviour change.
June 2022 – Africa Examine launched its Matter of Reality media literacy marketing campaign – a collection targeted on elections and civic misinformation literacy in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The marketing campaign contains over 20 discrete content material items in textual content, video, audio and visible format, in addition to in-and-out-of-school media literacy workshops.
