Africa Check’s job is to straighten out wrong claims and political untruths. It also tries to keep stories about famous people truthful, or to provide information so the media will not publish false stories.
Julian Rademeyer is the editor of the site. He says it tries to get people to look with doubt at suspicious claims.
“I think the fundamental element of our work is that we are trying to get people to question what they are told, what they read, what politicians say to them, and to look at the information and to ask ‘Where is the evidence?’ If someone makes a claim, to ask, ‘Where is the evidence to support that claim?’ Let’s actually interrogate those claims, and not accept things purely for what they are.”
Agence France Press Foundation launched the website in June, 2012. Africa Check is the first media outlet in South Africa whose single purpose is to check facts. It follows the example of popular sites in the United States like Politifact and Factcheck.
Mr. Rademeyer and a researcher are the site’s two full-time employees. A team of part-time reporters also work on fact checking.
South Africa has a strong history of investigative journalism and photography from the country’s apartheid period. That was a time of legally enforced racial separation. But Mr. Rademeyer says reduced budgets and fewer reporters in the country now harm the ability to establish the truth of some claims.
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2013-11-25
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