Fact-checking is too important to be left just to the media.

We all need to be watchdogs, protecting our societies from harmful mis-/disinformation and hate speech.

These pan-African awards will showcase the brave pioneers who are using facts and reason to debunk false information and expose the hidden sock-puppet networks who are subverting our societies.

The awards are open to both individuals and organisations.

You could be a community activist (such as an environmentalist or human rights defender), or a researcher (both in academia and civil society), or a civic watchdog (such as a budget/policy analyst or grassroots service delivery monitor), or a storyteller (such as journalists, social influencers or artistic creatives), or even just an amatuer armchair pundit.

Your debunk must be fact-based.

We fight falsehoods with facts. Your fact-checking should use verifiable evidence, from credible sources (the more the better) and a transparent methodology to separate fiction from fact. The best fact-checking is also contextualised, showing evidence that reflects local realities.

Your fact-checks must have been published.

Your debunk must have been published on a public platform, either in the mainstream media or online, or as publicly accessible research. You must be able to show that your fact-checking reached a meaningful audience (size isn’t always important), and that it created a tangible impact or that it shifted public discourse.