Taiwo Adebulu, a journalist with TheCable, an online news portal has emerged winner of the 2020 African fact-checking awards.
The awards now in its seventh year and continuing to grow is the only awards programme that honours journalism by Africa-based media in the expanding field of fact-checking.
In a ceremony held on October 22, 2020, as part of the virtual African Investigative Journalism Conference, organisers of the event, said the impressive entries submitted for the 2020 awards show the growing and vibrant practice of fact-checking on the continent.
Adebulu’s entry was rated as the best from a total of 192 entries received from 27 countries across the continent.
His story “FACT CHECK: Nigeria told UN that 7 varsities run strictly on renewable energy, but is this true?” had investigated how Nigeria’s minister of environment had grossly misinformed the United Nations at its Climate Action Summit in 2019.
“In what has been a year like no other, we’ve received the highest number of entries in the history of the African Fact-Checking Awards: 192 entries from 27 countries across Africa,” the organisers said.
“We’ve gone from strength to strength since our inaugural awards in 2014 when we had about 40 entries from 10 countries. This growth can only be a wonderful advertisement for the growing & vibrant practice of fact-checking on the continent.”
Adebulu, who holds a master’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Ibadan, has previously won other media awards which include, the 2020 BudgIT/Civic Hive Media Fellowship, 2020 PwC Media Excellence Awards, finalist in the 2018 Future Awards Africa Prize for Journalism as well as the 2017 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) category of the Zimeo Excellence in Media awards in Ethiopia.
