Fake News: Africa Check Trains Nigerian Journalists on Fact Checking

Scores of Nigerian journalists have been equipped with latest skills and tools for modern fact checking procedures to enhance their practice.

The skills were required at a comprehensive workshop organized by Africa Check, Africa’s first independent fact checking International Organization on the continent for select premium media practitioners, including TheConscience editorial team.

The program which held on Friday had participants from all the media arms including print, online and broadcast both from privately owned and government media establishments.

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Participants received various presentations from experts including Liesl Pretorious from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Carina van Wyk, Head of education and training at TRI Facts, Catherine Olorunfemi, Editorial project coordinator at Africa Check, David Ajikobi, Africa Check Nigeria Editor and Dr Yahaya Disu, Head of Risk Communications at the Nigerian Center for Disease Control NCDC.

Speaking at the One-day workshop, Ajikobi said acquiring fact checking skill and digital tools will enhance quality of journalistic practice in Nigeria and boost media professionalism for Nigerian journalists.

Ajikobi explained that Africa Check is a non-profit organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. It strives to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent.

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Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, said of us: “For democracies to function properly, for people to make informed decisions about their lives, the claims made in the public domain must be held up to scrutiny and their veracity checked openly and impartially.

Liesl Pretorius is an award-winning journalist whose interests include misinformation, data journalism and civic technology. As an impactAFRICA grantee (Code for Africa/International Center for Journalists), Liesl launched Track My Mayor, a promise tracker aimed at keeping local politicians accountable.

She is a former editor of two digital news titles published by Media24. In 2019, she won the national data journalism category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards. The Media magazine has recognised Liesl as one of the top 40 South African media people under 40.