Made In Africa Sport’s editor selected for Dubawa’s Kwame Karikari fact-checking fellowship
(Press Release) – Made In Africa Sport’s team lead and editor-in-chief, Olamide O. Abe, has been selected as a fellow in the 2024 Kwame Karikari fact-checking fellowship.
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), through its fact-checking project Dubawa, picked 40 journalists from Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria for the sixth edition of the fellowship.
The fellows commenced intensive training from 26 to 29 February 2024, before embarking on the fellowship programme from 1 March to 30 August 2024.
Throughout the fellowship, the fellows are expected to produce three fact-check stories covering topics such as politics, health, economy, sports, etc. along with one media literacy article/explainer monthly.
They are tasked with promoting fact-checking across all social media, print, online, radio, or TV platforms as necessary.
This fellowship aligns with Made In Africa Sport’s commitment to evidence-based and open-source reporting, as we aim to establish dedicated fact-checking desks in our newsroom.
Made In Africa Sport will also collaborate with Dubawa by cross-publishing fact-check reports on our platform, and upon completion of the programme, Olamide will train his colleagues on the theory and practice of fact-checking.
THE KWAME KARIKARI FACT-CHECKING FELLOWSHIP
In their mission to combat and curb the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation, and to further extend the reach of verified and accurate information to both rural and urban societies, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) launched the Kwame Karikari fact-checking fellowship through DUBAWA.
Named after Professor Kwame Karikari, an advocate for media freedom and the founder of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the fellowship is designed to promote accountability in public institutions, institutionalise the art and culture of fact-checking in newsrooms, and enhance understanding of the phenomenon within the Anglophone axis of the West African sub-region.
This sixth edition of the fellowship is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
In a press statement provided to Made In Africa Sport, the Chief Executive Officer of CJID, Dapo Olorunyomi, said, “Back in 2019, when we set up the Kwame Karikari fact-checking fellowship programme, the idea was to help strengthen the factual underpinnings of our journalism, to do the important job of promoting accountability, and to help set the right agenda for our democracy even as it kept a vibrant and healthy gatekeeping process alive.”
“Today, five years on, the programme has gained strength in all its five Anglophone West African offices, even as plans are now afoot to launch the Francophone offices.”
