Africa Check
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Company type | Non-profit organization |
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Industry | Journalism |
Founded | June 2012 |
Headquarters | South Africa |
Area served | South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal |
Key people |
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Services | Fact checking |
Website | africacheck |
Africa Check is a non-profit fact checking organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. The organisation's goal is to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent.[1][2] Africa Check is an independent organisation with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar and London, producing reports in English and French testing claims made by public figures, institutions and the media against the best available evidence.[1]
History
[edit]Africa Check was launched by Peter Cunliffe-Jones after it won an International Press Institute news innovation contest sponsored by Google.[2] It was modelled after FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com and is the first website in South Africa to focus only on fact checking.[3]
Africa Check's main team is based in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Journalism Department of the University of the Witwatersrand, where they currently have a fact-checking team including their Chief Editor, along with fundraising, training and research services and a head of digital communication.
In October 2015, Africa Check established a fact-checking team based at the EJICOM school of journalism in Dakar, Senegal. The Dakar team operates Africa Check's French-language website. Africa Check has also opened regional offices in Lagos, Nigeria (in 2016) and Nairobi, Kenya (in 2017) and now employs around 30 fact checkers.[4]
In March 2019, Noko Makgato was appointed as the new director of Africa Check.[5][6] In the same month Peter Cunliffe-Jones, the 2012 founder of Africa Check, announced that he would resign from his position as executive director with effect from May 2019 as he had been appointed as the International Fact-Checking Network's senior adviser.[5]
In June 2019, the second Africa Fact meeting, hosted by Africa Check, was attended by around 30 people from seven African countries, who shared best practice experience. During the subsequent sixth annual Global Fact-Checking Summit they gathered information about the status and development of the fact checking industry.[5][7]
In March 2021, Africa Check, as the only African organization, was awarded funds from the Google News Initiative's (GNI) $3-million GNI Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund, to support them in exposing COVID-19 vaccine fake news.[8]
Fact checks in the new media
[edit]Africa Check is known for its work on fact-checking viral claims made about South Africa on Facebook, such as a claim in 2013 that South Africa was "worse off now than 19 years ago."[9][10] Sixteen claims about South Africa were investigated including claims such as "unemployment in South Africa has increased by over 60% in the past 19 years", South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, and South Africa is one of the top-ten countries in the world for murder. Regarding these claims, Africa Check found that South Africa's unemployment rate has increased from 20% to 24.7% during the last 19 years, an increase of 23.5%, so the claim of a 60% increase was false.[9] They could not substantiate the claim that South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, but they reported that it is probably true that South Africa is in the top ten countries for highest murder rates.[9]
Africa Check has also debunked claims of "herbal cures" for HIV/AIDS that have spread in Africa, noting that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of any of these claimed remedies.[11]
In South Africa, there has been some debate about whether South African farm attacks are an organised genocide against white South African farmers or whether the rate of attacks and murders is consistent with the overall murder rate in South Africa.[12] Africa Check reported that the current murder rate of whites is less than the murder rate of other racial groups in South Africa and that it is less than the murder rate for whites from 1979 to 1991, which was during the apartheid era and drawing into question the claim of genocide.[12][13]
Originating with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, the claim that 80% of South Africans use traditional healers has been spread by the news media worldwide.[14] Africa Check found that this claim was greatly exaggerated and that the claim could be traced to an unsubstantiated claim made in 1983 WHO documents.[14]
Africa Check has objected to the notion of claiming particular places are "rape capitals of the world". According to Africa Check, it is not possible to make such comparisons because different countries have different legal definitions of rape, methods of collecting data of rapes, and levels of reporting rape. All of these issues make exact comparisons of rape rates across countries impossible, because the data is currently too unreliable.[15]
It also has a dedicated platform - the InfoFinder - with reliable sources of information from different African countries.[16]
In October 2018, Facebook announced its intention to co-operate with Africa Check and other third-party fact-checkers in Kenya, as well as the help of users, to flag fake news stories in a bid to improve the quality of news people find on its platform. It was subsequently to be rolled out to other African states.[17][18][19] In the same month Facebook also started to provide fact checking tools to reduce fake news in Nigeria.[20]
In March 2019, Africa Check, in co-operation with NPO Volume Investigations, introduced the "What's crap on WhatsApp?" service to identify fake news more easily.[21] In August 2019, it was announced that Facebook, in partnership with Africa Check, would introduce new local language coverage for several African languages.[22] In the same month Africa Check, together with the podcast company Volume, saw an incredible growth in its WhatsApp podcast exposing widely distributed false information and was able to extended its base of supporters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.[23]
Fact checks on gender violence against women
[edit]In August 2018 Africa Check reported about women in South Africa protesting against violence and femicide as it emerged that the number of murders of women were four times as high in South Africa as in the rest of the world.[24] In January 2019 Africa Check reported that 40,035 rapes had been documented by the South African Police in the 12-month period up to March 31, 2018, which averaged on 110 rapes per day which caused South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa to call for action against this 'rape crisis'.[25]
Fact checks on murder of white farmers
[edit]In 2018 Africa Check called out Australia's humanitarian efforts to help South African farmers by fast tracking their applications for visas and again reported that it is "near impossible" to accurately calculate the figure of farm murders in South Africa but that newly estimated and reliable figures showed that the rate of overall farm murders of all ethnic origin could be a mere 0.4 murders per 100,000 people.[26] Australia's home affairs, immigration and border protection minister Peter Dutton had relied on false reports that murders of white South African farmers happened every week.[27]
Fact checks on immigration
[edit]In November 2020 Africa Check exposed fake news issued by former Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba who had claimed in a tweet that there were 15-million "undocumented foreigners" living in South Africa and who had willingly misinterpreted correct information published by other reputable sources.[28]
In March 2021 Africa Check confirmed that the number of 15 million was grossly inflated.[29]
African fact-checking awards
[edit]Africa Check has been running the continent's first African Fact-checking Awards.[30] In their first year, 2014, the awards were won by two journalists from Ghana,[31] and the runners-up came from Kenya and Zambia. In 2015, the winner came from Nigeria[32] and runner-up from South Africa. In 2016, Africa Check created an awards category for reports published in the Francophone media. That year, the awards were won by journalists from Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire,[33] with runners-up from Nigeria and Swaziland.
In 2017, Africa Check added a student category,[30] as fact-checking continues to become an essential skill. This saw Moussa Ngom of CESTI in Senegal become the very first francophone African journalism student to win the inaugural best fact-checking report by a student journalist award.[34] Banathi Mgqoboka of Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies in South Africa became the first anglophone African journalism student to be shortlisted for the inaugural best fact-checking report by a student journalist award while attending the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2017.[35][36]
Africa Check also awards the annual fact-checking award in the working journalists' category. In 2018, this was awarded to Nigerian Chikezie Omeje, a Senior Investigative Reporter with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).[37] In 2019, Nigerian journalist Odinaka Anudu of Business Day Nigeria was awarded this accolade,[38] and in 2020, it went to Nigerian journalist Taiwo Adebulu of TheCable newspaper.[39]
Methods of fact-checking
[edit]Identify the exact claim that is to be verified. Contact the person who makes the claim to ask them about the source or proof of their claim. Then fact-checkers must turn to experts in the field to add nuance and context. Afterwards authors write their reports, setting out the evidence step by step and indicating the sources used. The manuscript is passed on to an editor for review. Only once a verdict is agreed, is the article published.[16]
In February 2020, the three fact checking organizations Africa Check, Chequeado and Full Fact started to investigate existing research results on "fact checking" with the aim to equip fact checkers globally to see how they can not only counter wrong information but also contribute to "creating a healthier information ecosystem in the long term" and to enable the public to better identify checkable claims and to be more critical about what they read.[40]
Funding
[edit]Africa Check is registered as a non-profit trust in South Africa and as a community interest company in Britain.[41]
Africa Check was established by a £45,648 initial grant in 2012.[41] The Agence France-Presse (AFP) Foundation,[42] and the University of the Witwatersrand provided funding.[43]
In 2016, it raised slightly below £473,000.[41] In 2016, Africa Check's major donors were the Shuttleworth Foundation (26% of income), Omidyar Network (23%), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (13%), the Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA) (12%), and the Millennium Trust (9%), and Agence France-Presse (5%).[41] In 2016, Africa Check earned about 6% of its income from TRI Facts, its commercial Training, Research & Information unit, which provides commercial services. Other non-profits make up smaller percentages of income, and about 1% of income comes from individual donors.[41]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Rick, Lyman (23 July 2013). "Nonpartisan Fact-Checking Comes to South Africa". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ a b Rachel, Bartlett (13 August 2013). "Checking the facts: Africa Check expands to new countries". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ Peter, Cox (7 August 2013). "Fledgling Website Brings Fact Checking to South Africa". Voice of America. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ "People: Our team". Africa Check. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
- ^ a b c "The founder of Africa Check is now the International Fact-Checking Network's senior adviser". Poynter Institute. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ "Africa Check has a new director. Here's his vision for fact-checking on the continent". Poynter Institute. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ "Here's how fact-checking is developing across Africa". Poynter Institute. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ^ "Africa Check receives funding from Google to counter COVID-19 vaccine misinformation". pulse.ng. 16 March 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
- ^ a b c "Africa Check: The truth behind THAT viral Facebook post about SA". Daily Maverick. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ Kate, Wilkinson, Sintha Chiumia (28 November 2013). "Is Facebook post that SA is worse off now than 19 years ago true?". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Peter, Cunliffe-Jones (2 December 2013). "Africa Check: No scientific evidence to back claims of breakthrough cures for HIV/AIDS". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ a b Harriet, Mann (1 October 2013). "Protest against 'slaughter of whites' in South Africa heads to London". The South African. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
- ^ Baobab Correspondent (3 July 2013). "Getting the facts straight". The Economist. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
{{cite news}}
:|last=
has generic name (help) - ^ a b Kate, Wilkinson. "Use of traditional healers vastly exaggerated". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
- ^ "Africa Check: Why it is wrong to call South Africa, or any country, the 'rape capital of the world'". Daily Maverick. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ^ a b "Fighting for honesty". D+C. 21 April 2018.
- ^ "Facebook is launching fact-checking tools in Africa—but WhatsApp is its real problem". Quartz. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
- ^ "Facebook Partners With Africa Check and AFP to Fact Check News in Kenya". techweez. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Facebook is launching fake news checking in South Africa – here's how it works". Business Insider. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "Facebook partners Africa Check, AFP to fact-check Nigerian news". Premium Times. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
- ^ "What's crap on WhatsApp? Here's how to use Africa Check to find out". TimesLIVE. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
- ^ "Facebook, Africa Check partner to expand local language coverage". busiweek.com. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "Africa Check sees huge growth in its WhatsApp podcast debunking widely circulated misinformation". Poynter Institute. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ^ "Women in South Africa are marching against gender violence with #TotalShutdown protest". CNN. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
- ^ "South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa urges action against 'rape crisis'". BBC. 12 January 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
- ^ "South Africa criticises Australian plan to fast-track white farmer visas". The Guardian. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ "Australia's offer to fast track visas for "persecuted" white farmers is slammed by South Africa". Quartz. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
- ^ "Africa Check debunks Mashaba's '15m undocumented foreigners in SA' claim". thesouthafrican.com. 22 November 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- ^ "Africa Check debunks notion of 15 million illegal migrants in SA". CapeTalk. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ a b "African Fact-checking Awards - Honouring the best fact-checking work".
- ^ "Ghanaian journalist wins first African Fact-Checking Awards". AFP.
- ^ "PREMIUM TIMES journalist wins 2015 African Fact-Checking Awards - Premium Times Nigeria". 13 November 2015.
- ^ "Cote d'Ivoire , Cameroon top winners at African Fact-Checking Awards". SABC News. 9 December 2016. Archived from the original on 10 December 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ "Our previous winners". Africa Check. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
- ^ "Fact-checking Awards 2017 : dix-sept articles présélectionnés". Africa Check (in French). 28 September 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ "UPDATED:PREMIUM TIMES report on presidency's rice claim shortlisted for Africa fact-checking award - Premium Times Nigeria". 30 September 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ "ICIR's Chikezie Omeje wins Africa Check's fact check award". International Centre for Investigative Reporting. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ "Nigerian and Senegalese journalists lauded at Africa Check Fact-Checking Awards". journalism.co.za. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ "Nigerian Journalist Wins Africa Fact-Check Award". Premium Times. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- ^ "What Africa Check, Chequeado and Full Fact have learned about tackling bad information". Poynter Institute. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "How we are funded". Africa Check. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ^ "AFP Fondation's African fact-checking project a winner of African News Innovation Challenge". AFP Foundation. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ Jessica, Weiss (20 June 2013). "Site sorts fact from fiction in South Africa". International Journalists' Network. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.