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In this edition
* Africa’s fact-checkers show resilience as funding fades
* Global journalists honored for exposing attacks on reporters in Gaza

Journalists at the Africa Facts Summit, held on Oct.1–2, 2025. (Photo/ Africa Check)

By Enock Nyariki (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=)

As applause filled the hall at the Jardin Savana Hotel in Dakar, Senegal, Valdez Onanina stepped forward to hand certificates of distinguished service to three people who helped shape fact-checking in French-speaking West Africa: Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Assane Diagne, and Samba Dialimpa Badji. For Valdez, who leads Africa Check’s francophone team, it was the most emotional moment of the two-day Africa Facts Summit. The dream of bringing the summit home to Senegal had finally come true.

I had come to speak about the future of fact-checking standards, but the story unfolding in Dakar was larger than that. The platforms that once sponsored fact-checking projects and previous Africa Facts Summits, including Google and Meta, were nowhere to be seen, just as they were absent from IFCN’s GlobalFact conference in Rio last June. Still, 162 participants from 35 countries filled the hotel’s conference hall, many covering their own travel to discuss how to keep the work alive. Against all odds, the field was proving resilient.

“While calm and humility are called for in moments like these, the Africa Facts Summit in Dakar was, for me, a profoundly meaningful experience,” Valdez told me.

The summit’s theme, “Strengthening Information Integrity, Safeguarding Democracy,” echoed through many of the discussions, but nowhere more sharply than in the session on “Disinformation in Times of Crisis.” Jibi Moses of Clarity Desk in South Sudan described trying to verify claims during internet blackouts while delivering facts to desperate audiences in a country still at war. From the Democratic Republic of Congo, Esdras Tsongo of Eleza Fact, one of the newest members of the IFCN network, warned that “in the DRC, where epidemics like Ebola reoccur almost every year, misinformation can be deadly.” He said seeking IFCN accreditation “wasn’t done for opportunities, but was a public commitment to rigorous, transparent, and impartial work.” Its principles, he told me, are essential for quality journalism in a country where truth is often contested. He spoke of rumors that move faster than vaccines or aid in communities still scarred by conflict.

Later, Charles Lotara of 211 Check, an IFCN signatory in South Sudan, told me, “We sometimes verify information from armed groups and the government on the same day. You can’t afford to get it wrong.”

He said restricted civic space makes even routine reporting risky, especially on political stories. To adapt to shrinking funding, his team now draws support from their parent organization, Digital Rights Frontlines, and collaborates with international NGOs to train journalists and community groups in verification.

“In a country struggling to recover from conflict like South Sudan, with rising internet penetration, information pollution persists, and this means our role has never been more critical.”

Valdez Onanina (left), head of Africa Check’s francophone team, presents Peter Cunliffe-Jones, founder of Africa Check, with a certificate of distinguished service for being one of the pioneers of fact-checking in West Africa. (Photo/ Africa Check)

Cartoonists in the room turned those tense exchanges into live sketches displayed on the big screen, sharp and funny drawings that captured both exhaustion and resolve. Attendees paused between sessions to photograph the cartoons pinned along the walls before returning to talks on trust with audiences, safety, and how to make information integrity work sustainable.

What stood out in Senegal was how far the fact-checking movement has advanced despite the odds. According to a recent tally by the IFCN, Africa now has 18 accredited signatories, nearly twice the count from less than five years ago and ahead of North America’s 17. That growth came even as platform support is fading. Some organizations joined the IFCN network after Meta ended its fact-checking program in the United States, a decision that forced several outlets in the U.S. to close.

The regional Africa Facts network now includes 59 organizations working to meet the IFCN’s Code of Principles and to strengthen their credibility with audiences and partners.

If the earlier sessions laid bare the challenges, Doreen Wainainah of PesaCheck, Africa’s largest fact-checking organization, spoke to what keeps the field going. “Most fact-checking organizations in Africa have been operating under limited resources for years,” she told me. “The amount of funding available has always been less than that in North America or Europe.”

She said PesaCheck, based at civic tech group Code for Africa, has managed to stay active across nearly 20 countries by relying on local teams and building networks that train and mentor newsroom partners. “We try to make sure we have local experts who understand the nuances within their countries,” she said. That model, built around the African Fact-Checking Alliance, allows PesaCheck to respond fast during elections and crises while helping smaller newsrooms build their own fact-checking desks.

When she spoke on the climate panel, Wainainah stressed that collaboration is no longer optional. “We must come together from different areas of expertise to effectively fact check climate change claims,” she said. “It’s all about collaboration.” Her idea of sustainability goes beyond money. It means building systems that get verified information to the people who need it most and finding new ways to stay relevant as disinformation tactics evolve.

Africa Check’s Hlalani Gumpo, who organized the conference, said limited resources will not stop the South Africa-based organization from bringing fact-checkers from across the continent together to confront the field’s toughest questions. Planning for the next summit is already underway, she told me.

The day after the conference, I shared a 90-minute taxi ride to the airport with Peter Cunliffe-Jones, the founder of Africa Check. On the way, he mentioned that he’s researching new revenue models for fact-checkers, a reminder that even as the field matures, it’s still figuring out how to fund its future.



** Fact-checkers honored for uncovering attacks on journalists in Palestinian territories
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By Salvador Rodriguez-Ruiz (mailto:[email protected])

The incubator for Media Education & Development’s (iMedD) 7th International Journalism Forum brought together fact-checkers, investigative journalists, academics, civil society organizations, and press freedom advocates to Athens, Greece, to discuss the most pressing issues in journalism. Reflecting on the recent announcement of a ceasefire to the Israeli-Hamas war, I’m reminded of one keynote presentation that showed both the dangers and power of collaborative journalism.

“We are becoming a target.” That was the warning from journalists in Gaza to Rawan Damen, director general of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), home of the Arab Fact-Checking Network.

As the Israel-Hamas war escalated, Damen contacted colleagues from Forbidden Stories ([link removed]) , Paper Trail Media ([link removed]) and the Guardian ([link removed]) to collaborate on an investigation into reports of targeted attacks on journalists in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. You can watch the keynote presentation here ([link removed]) .

This was the goal of The Gaza Project, a collaboration of 40 journalists from 12 media organizations documenting attacks on journalists in the Palestinian territories. The project brought together translators, investigative reporters, fact-checkers and journalists working inside Gaza to keep the world informed about the events on the ground and to amplify their reporting from the region.

According to Damen, The Gaza Project published more than 30 investigations verifying attacks on journalists, drawing on thousands of hours of video, open-source analysis and on-the-ground reporting. The first report ([link removed]) outlined the project’s purpose and the unique dangers faced by journalists in Gaza and the West Bank. The second, ([link removed]) released in March 2025, continued the investigation, focusing on the targeted killings of journalists and amplifying their work.

The killing of journalists is unprecedented in modern times. Between 2023 and 2025, 199 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, according ([link removed]) to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Because of the scale of the crisis, Damen said ARIJ had to expand beyond their investigation and fact-checking work, even supplying food and clothing to journalists in Gaza: “For the first time in our career, we needed to do humanitarian support.”

In collaboration with Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, ARIJ provided emergency aid, replaced cameras, laptops, solar panels and microphones, and offered shared internet spaces and tents for 400 journalists reporting from Gaza.

At the closing ceremony of the iMedD Forum, The Gaza Project was recognized as one of three winners ([link removed]) of the Investigative Journalism for Europe Fund Impact Award. The award honors impactful cross-border investigative journalism for its methodological rigor, collaboration across multiple newsrooms and commitment to accountability.

It’s clear that journalism and the media landscape face unprecedented challenges — from cutbacks in programs designed to limit the spread of misinformation to the expanding scope of AI search results and the growing threat to journalists’ safety.

In the end, Damen summed up the responsibility of journalists simply: “Let’s make sure the message survives.”

Have ideas or suggestions for the next issue of Factually? Email us at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=) .

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