African Fact-Checking Awards for African Students and Journalists

African Fact-Checking Awards

Program(s) Offered: Journalism
Program Level: Contest
Provider: Africa Check; African Media Initiative
Country to Study in: Kenya

Scholarship Description
The African Fact-Checking Awards, now in their fourth edition, are the only awards on the continent set up specifically to honour the best, non-partisan fact-checking journalism by working and student journalists on the continent.

After receiving entries from journalists in just a handful of countries in its first year of 2014, the African Fact-Checking Award has continued to grow with many more countries sending in entries. In 2016, awards for reports published in English and in French were created, and in 2017, a student category was added.

As fact-checking continues to become an essential skill for any mainstream journalist to acquire, the organizers hope that journalism schools around the continent will want to enter their students for these important awards. So if you are working as a reporter for an Africa-based media organisation, or if you are studying journalism in Africa, please get in touch to apply for the African Fact-Checking Awards if you fulfil the criteria below.

Eligibility
Entries must be an original piece of fact-checking journalism first published or broadcast between 1 September 2017 and 15 August 2018 by a media house based in Africa or produced as coursework.

The work may be published in print or online, broadcast on the radio or television or published in a blog. Reports published by Africa Check are not eligible for the competition.

For the student category, the candidate must also have attended a journalism school in Africa at some period between 1 September 2017 and 15 August 2018.

Entries can be published or broadcast in any language but for them to be considered, if they are not originally done in English or French, a translation into English or French must be provided.
Any individual and/or team can put in a maximum of two entries each.

Selection criteria:
Criteria for judging entries:

• The significance for wider society of the claim that was investigated
• How well the claim was tested against the available evidence
• How well the piece presented the evidence for and against the claim
• The impact that the publication had on public debate on the topic

Eligible groups
Citizens of ALL African countries

Participating Institutions
Any work published by ANY media house in Africa -- in print or online, on radio or television broadcast, or published on a blog

Award Categories
This year, we have added exciting new categories.

1. Fact-check of the year & runner-up (for a single piece of work) 
2. Fact-checking series of the year & runner up (for a body of work)
3. Fact-check of the year by a student & runner-up (a single piece of work done by a journalism student)
4. Fact of the year (most striking statistic first published that year – voted for by our readers)

You can enter the awards if you publish or broadcast a report between 1 September 2017 and 15 August 2018, exposing as misleading or wrong a claim on an important topic made by a public figure or institution in Africa.

Scholarship benefits
The winners of the awards for best fact-checking report and best fact-checking series by a working journalist will each take away a prize of $2,000, with two runners-up taking away prizes of $1,000 each. The winner of the award for best fact-checking report by a student journalist will take away a prize of $1,000 and the runner-up scooping $500. The names of the winners and runners-up will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in October.

Method of Application
Entries for this competition must be received by the organisers via the online entry form in either French or English. No other means of sending in entries is allowed. Applications are open for journalists and students interested in submitting fact-finding stories they have investigated and reported between 1 September 2017 and 15 August this year.

Interested participants should visit the official award webpage (link to it is below) for complete information on how to apply.

DEADLINES:
Entries open 1 July and close 15 August 2018 at midnight. All applications must be submitted before midnight 15th August, 2018

PLEASE NOTE:
For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, nonprofit and non-partisan organisation started in June 2012 which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results.

Application Deadline: 15 August 2018
Open to International Applicants: Yes

More Scholarship Information and Application

Related: Scholarships in Kenya for International Students