Africa Check

Africa Check
Non-profit organisation
Industry Journalism
Founded 2012
Headquarters South Africa
Services Fact checking
Website www.africacheck.org

Africa Check is a nonprofit and non-partisan organisation started in June 2012 with the stated aim of improving fact checking and news gathering in Africa.[1][2] Its website is partnered with the School of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa to support the training of journalists on how to check facts asserted by politicians and other media outlets.[1]

History

Africa Check was launched after it won an International Press Institute news innovation contest sponsored by Google.[2] It was modelled after Factcheck.org and PolitiFact.com and is the first website in South Africa to focus only on fact checking.[3] Currently, Peter Cunliffe-Jones is its director with full-time journalist Julian Rademeyer, and two researchers, Sintha Chiumia and Kate Wilkinson.[4]

It is funded by public donations, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) Foundation,[5] and the University of the Witwatersrand.[6]

Fact checks in the new media

It is particularly notable for fact checking viral claims made about South Africa on Facebook.[7][8] Sixteen claims about South Africa were investigated including claims such as "unemployment in South Africa has increased by over 60% in the past 19 years," South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, and South Africa is one of the top-ten countries in the world for murder. Regarding these claims, Africa Check found that South Africa's unemployment rate has increased from 20% to 24.7% during the last 19 years, an increase of 23.5%, so the claim of a 60% increase was false.[7] They could not substantiate the claim that South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world, but they reported that it is probably true that South Africa is in the top ten countries for highest murder rates.[7]

Recently, articles from several African countries have claimed herbal cures for HIV/AIDS.[9] For example, in Tanzania's Daily News it was reported that the Ministry of Health claimed the discovery of a herb, which could cure HIV/AIDS even in the final stages of the disease.[10] In Zambia, a doctor reported a new herbal cure for the HIV virus.[11] Africa Check found no evidence for the effectiveness of any of these claimed herbal cures.[9]

In South Africa, there has been a long-term debate about whether South African farm attacks are an organised genocide against white South African farmers or whether the rate of attacks and murders is consistent with the overall murder rate in South Africa.[12] Africa Check reported that the current murder rate of whites is less than the murder rate of other racial groups in South Africa and that it is less than the murder rate for whites from 1979 to 1991, which was during the apartheid era and drawing into question the claim of genocide.[12][13]

Originating with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, the claim that 80% of South Africans use traditional healers has been spread by the news media world-wide.[14] Africa Check found that this claim was greatly exaggerated and that the claim could be traced to an unsubstantiated claim made in 1983 WHO documents.[14]

Are countries such as South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo or India the rape capitals of the world? According to Africa Check, it is not currently possible to make such comparisons because different countries have different legal definitions of rape, methods of collecting data of rapes, and levels of reporting rape. All of these issues make exact comparisons of rape rates across countries because the data a currently too unreliable.[15]

Donations

According to Africa Check's website it a non-profit organization, which receives its funding from grants by major organizations and donations from individuals. Among the major donors from 2012 to 2014 were International Press Institute, Google, the African News Innovation Challenge, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Centre for Journalists, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Omidyar Network, United States Department of State, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Open Society Foundations.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 Rick, Lyman (23 July 2013). "Nonpartisan Fact-Checking Comes to South Africa". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 Rachel, Bartlett (13 August 2013). "Checking the facts: Africa Check expands to new countries". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Peter, Cox (7 August 2013). "Fledgling Website Brings Fact Checking to South Africa". Voice of America. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  4. ↑ "People: Our team". http://www.africacheck.org. Retrieved 7 December 2013. External link in |publisher= (help)
  5. ↑ "AFP Fondation's African fact-checking project a winner of African News Innovation Challenge". AFP Foundation. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Jessica, Weiss (20 June 2013). "Site sorts fact from fiction in South Africa". ICFJ.org. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 "Africa Check: The truth behind THAT viral Facebook post about SA". Daily Maverick. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Kate, Wilkinson, Sintha Chiumia (28 November 2013). "Is Facebook post that SA is worse off now than 19 years ago true?". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  9. 1 2 Peter, Cunliffe-Jones (2 December 2013). "Africa Check: No scientific evidence to back claims of breakthrough cures for HIV/AIDS". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  10. ↑ Margareth (10 November 2013). "TASHACK: A promising cure for HIV/AIDS". Daily News. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  11. ↑ Dr. Mendez, Fernandez. "Breakthrough HIV herbal cure not illegal in Zimbabwe". http://www.zimeye.org. Retrieved 7 December 2013. External link in |publisher= (help)
  12. 1 2 Harriet, Mann (1 October 2013). "Protest against 'slaughter of whites' in South Africa heads to London". The South African. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  13. ↑ Baobab Correspondent (3 July 2013). "Getting the facts straight". The Economist. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  14. 1 2 Kate, Wilkinson. "Use of traditional healers vastly exaggerated". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  15. ↑ "Africa Check: Why it is wrong to call South Africa, or any country, the 'rape capital of the world'". Daily Maverick. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  16. ↑ "How we are funded". Africa Check. Retrieved 18 September 2014.

External links

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