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The winning entry, “Trading Ghana’s water for gold”, is a hard-hitting video that exposed misleading government claims to have eradicated the dangerously damaging practice of alluvial gold mining in the West African country.

The two joint runners up were Paul Shalala of the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, for a report on false claims made about the impact of multi-national mining investment on food security in his country, and Victor Amadala of the website kenyakidz.com for a report debunking a superstition that leads parents to have the teeth of newborn babies removed.

The entries were among more than 40 pieces of work submitted for these new awards by candidates from 10 countries across Africa - Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The winning team will receive a total of €2,000 while each runner up will receive €1,000.

The awards were presented at a ceremony in Nairobi hosted by the Africa Media Initiative, the continent’s largest association of media owners, senior executives and other industry stakeholders.

“By taking claims made by public figures, and by checking them rigorously and impartially, these African reporters and editors are defending the best values of journalism. They are also helping to promote openness and transparency in public affairs,” said the chairman of the AFP Foundation Emmanuel Hoog.

The winners were selected by a jury of prominent media figures chaired by Eric Chinje, the chief executive of African Media Initiative, who said: "I hope this award serves as a call to excellence and integrity in journalism everywhere in Africa. The jury readily identified entries that demonstrated a high level of professionalism and balance in reporting."

Chinje is a board member of Africa Check, the AFP Foundation devised organisation which runs the continent’s first fact-checking website africacheck.org.

Africa Check was established in October 2012 by the AFP Foundation and operates from offices in the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. It has published hundreds of reports on topics from fake health cures to the impact of electricity pricing on the poor, to the effect of gun control on murder rates.
 

About the AFP Foundation:

The AFP Foundation is a non-profit organisation set up in 2007 by the AFP news agency to provide media training and support press standards in countries around the world.