Ghanaian fact-checking organisation shortlisted for Best Project for News Literacy in Africa

GhanaFact has been shortlisted for the African Digital Media Awards 2020 by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The Ghanaian fact-checker is shortlisted in the Best Project for News Literacy category together with a South African journalism project that seeks to train citizen journalists to tell their own stories.

Winners of this year’s most prestigious digital news awards on the African continent will be announced during the two-day Digital Media Africa conference that bringing together the brightest media minds in the continent.

The annual awards recognize publishers who have delivered unique and original digital media projects in the last 12 months.

Fact-checking misinformation

GhanaFact is a journalism innovation project by FactSpace West Africa currently addressing the media market need for an independent, non-partisan factchecker in Ghana, West Africa.

Launched in 2019, GhanaFact has been tackling the spread of mis/disinformation on social and traditional media, promoting accuracy in public discourse, and helping to safeguard Ghana’s democracy.

GhanaFact is signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Code of Principles, one of the few media quality standards recognized worldwide and a member of Africa Facts, a community of fact-checkers in Africa.

Collaborations

GhanaFact is currently collaborating with other African fact-checkers including the pioneering fact-checking organisation on the continent, Africa Check based in South Africa, ZimFact in Zimbabwe and Dubawa in Nigeria to build a repository of facts from African fact-checkers work called Info Finder.

The Ghanaian fact-checker has been part of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) COVID-19 Alliance that has brough together close to 100 fact-checkers from around the world helping fight the “infodemic” around COVID-19, with a report by the GhanaFact shortlisted as one of four in the best category section during the Global Fact Awards 2020.

GhanaFact has trained about 200 students at the University of Ghana and Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in how to use digital tools in fact-checking and news verification.

With support from DW Akademie, the fact-checker also trained lecturers at the National Film AND Television Institute (NAFTI) and editors of various mainstream media organizations across the country including Focus FM, Ultimate FM, Sangani TV, Radio ABM, Radio 123.

The fact-checking project as part of increasing awareness and educating the public, has made representation on panels during the 2020 Global Fact-checking Conference and the 2019 Tech in Ghana Conference.