PREMIUM TIMES journalist, others win at 2022 Africa Truth-Checking award

PREMIUM TIMES journalist Kabiru Yusuf has emerged because the runner-up within the Working Journalist class on the African Truth-Checking awards, the longest-running awards programme honouring fact-checking journalism in Africa.

The award was held on Thursday at a Gala Evening in Nairobi, Kenya, marking the top of the inaugural Africa Info Summit 2022.

Mr Yusuf’s fact-check of President Muhammadu Buhari’s declare of “leaving Nigeria higher than he discovered it” gained the coveted runner-up award.

The report, revealed in July, examined the three areas of governance that Mr Buhari was requested about in his June interview with Bloomberg – corruption, safety, and the economic system.

Utilizing internationally acknowledged metrics, Mr Yusuf’s fact-check discovered the president’s declare to be largely false. All financial indices have gotten worse beneath Mr Buhari’s administration whereas safety and anti-corruption can’t be mentioned to have improved within the final seven years.

“I’m immensely happy with my staff member Yusuf for his glory on the Africa Checks Awards,” mentioned Taiwo Adebayo, PREMIUM TIMES’ head of investigations and information desk.

“This can be a deserved recognition of the wonderful work Mr Yusuf does and the business and rigour he invests in our work.”

Mr Yusuf is a member of PREMIUM TIMES’ investigations and information desk. He’s a self-taught graphics designer who makes use of an array of instruments to creatively characterize information and crunch numbers by way of infographics.

The investigation he co-authored on Nigerians in search of asylum in Canada bagged the award for the very best story within the on-line class of the 2022 Reporting Migration Competitors in July.

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A 2022 local weather fellow of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Improvement (CJID), Mr Yusuf has authored greater than 300 experiences on schooling, migration, gender, international affairs, information evaluation on finances and issues of public spending.

“I’m immersed in gratitude for this glory and honour,” he mentioned after profitable the award.

“However I realised that getting this recognition on the continental degree emphasises the numerous different wants remaining in our resolve at all times to carry authorities officers, public figures, and companies accountable.”

This 12 months’s award ceremony additionally marks the tenth anniversary of Africa Test. Organisers mentioned the necessity for correct data in on a regular basis life has spurred the expansion of fact-checking in Africa and the world over.

“Truth-checking works as a result of we’re answering a necessity for accuracy,” mentioned Peter Cunliffe-Jones, the founding father of Africa Test.

The Africa Test awards have three classes: Truth-Test of the 12 months by a Working Journalist; Truth-Test of the 12 months by a Skilled Truth-Checker; and Truth-Test of the 12 months by a Scholar Journalist.

The winner within the working journalist class was Nigerian Journalist Kunle Adebajo for his fact-check: “Russia Claims U.S. Is Making Bioweapons In Nigeria. True?”

For his report on Unmasking the faces behind the COVID-19 anti-vaccination marketing campaign in Ghana, Jonas Nyabor, a fact-checker with Dubawa Ghana gained the class of Truth-Test of the 12 months by a Skilled Truth-Checker. The runner-up for that class was James Okong, a fact-checker with AFP Truth-Test.

Within the Scholar Journalist class, three college students of the College of Mauritius; Vidyasharita Bumma, Kokeelavani Mauree & Sachita Gobeen gained the prize with their story fact-checking a Mauritian media organisation’s “deceptive claims on vaccination for youngsters.” The runner-up for that class was Elizabeth Henri-Héloïse.

The winners of the working journalist {and professional} fact-checker classes every obtained a money prize of US$3,000. The runners-up acquired $1,500 every. The winner of the scholar journalist class was awarded $2,000, and the runner-up $1,000.