Africa Check Launches Training And Research Services On Demand

Independent fact-checking organisation Africa Check on Wednesday launches a range of new training, research and fact-checking services aimed at improving accuracy, accountability and transparency in Africa’s media, commercial and non-profit sectors.

“Our editorial division is focused on promoting accuracy in public debate; raising the quality of information available to the public” said Africa Check’s director, Peter Cunliffe-Jones.

“But getting your facts straight is vital in all parts of society – not just for public figures. The same principles hold true whether you’re an individual, a newspaper, a non-profit organisation or a multi-national corporation. And that is why we are launching these new services,” he added.

Africa Check, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation which launched in 2012, is the leading fact-checking agency in the continent. Since it was set up it has exposed numerous misleading claims from hoaxes around Boko Haram in Nigeria to fake cures for Ebola and HIV in west and southern Africa. The organisation’s work has won awards and been profiled in The New York Times, the UK’s The Guardian and The Economist, among other publications.

The training, research and information division – Africa Check TRiFacts – will be headed by veteran South African journalist and author Nechama Brodie; herself a regular contributor to Africa Check.

Brodie says Africa Check TRiFacts is the perfect way for Africa Check to help companies, non-profit organisations and the media raise their game and – at the same time – to entrench the importance of facts in all aspects of public life.

“These days, everyone is part of the news cycle but much of what is circulated is based on false information or poor research. At the same time, the internet has given us incredible tools and techniques to use to check what we report, what we claim. And that is what we aim to train people in media and communication to be able to do.

“We also know that research presents challenges for businesses, the media and non-profit organisations. Good data is often hard to come by, but decisions based on poor research are generally poor decisions. By offering a research-on-demand service, we hope to help fill the knowledge and the skills gap.”

Contact information

To learn more about the services launched today, please visit the Africa Check website and go to: www.africacheck.org/services/and email Nechama Brodie at:nechama@africacheck.org

About Africa Check

Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organisation, set up in 2012 by the AFP Foundation, the non-profit media training arm of the AFP news agency, in a partnership with the School of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This Press statement was issued by the Nairobi-based African Media Initiative