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How a Nigerian nonprofit is teaching fact-checking to journalists from West Africa | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

A few months ago, Liberian journalist Josephine Wreh learnt through a colleague about a six-month fellowship programme on fact-checking for West African journalists. She applied and was selected to participate. The initiative was run by Dubawa, a fact-checking nonprofit launched by the Centre for Journalism and Innovation Development (CJID).

Wreh works for Sky Communications Incorporated, a company with both radio and TV outfits. “The experience of being part of a programme teaching journalists in Africa how to fact-check with skills and tools was amazing,” said Wreh, for whom the programme, held virtually as a result of COVID-19 disruptions, was her first training on fact-checking, a useful set of skills in a news ecosystem where misinformation is a growing concern.

Fact-checking is a new discipline in Liberia. Most journalists lack the skills to debunk false information and this training by Dubawa is helping fill this gap. Since its launch in 2018, Dubawa has been promoting a culture of fact-checking in Nigeria by building the capacities of Nigerian journalists through training and through forging strategic partnerships with media and civic organisations across West Africa.

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Source: How a Nigerian nonprofit is teaching fact-checking to journalists from West Africa | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism