"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."
"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."
The Africa Facts Summit convened 162 participants from 35 countries in Dakar, Senegal, celebrating pioneers of francophone West African fact-checking. Major platform sponsors such as Google and Meta were absent, and many participants covered travel costs themselves to sustain the work. The summit emphasized "Strengthening Information Integrity, Safeguarding Democracy" and focused on disinformation during crises. Verifiers described challenges such as internet blackouts in South Sudan and recurring epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo where misinformation can be deadly. Newer organizations sought IFCN accreditation as a public commitment to rigorous, transparent and impartial work.
Read at Poynter
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