Dubawa’s 2021 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking Fellowship has begun with a 4-day fact-checking training session from Tuesday 18 May, 2021 to Friday 21 May, 2021 to orient and equip participants ahead of the programme.

The fellowship which is supported by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism  (PTCIJ) aims to tackle the rapid spread of mis/dis-information, expand the reach of verified and accurate information, institutionalize a culture of fact-checking and build knowledge around information disorder in Africa. The programme was named after Prof. Kwame Karikari, a former professor at the University of Ghana’s School of Communication, and founder of Media Foundation for West Africa.

The fact-checking programme will run for six months and end in November and involves 26 participants selected from various African countries including The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. AYV’s Antonia Howard was selected from Sierra Leone.

About Dubawa:
Dubawa is Nigeria’s first indigenous independent verification and fact-checking project, initiated by the PTCIJ and supported by the most influential newsrooms and civic organisations in West Africa to help amplify the culture of truth in public discourse, public policy, and journalistic practice. It has now become a transnational Fact-Checking Project spanning across the West African Sub-region with offices in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The basic assumptions (which are integral to our theory of change) are that factual information enables people to make more informed choices in a democratic society and on other public interest issues. Therefore, providing verified information will likely promote good governance and accountability.

Sources: Dubawa