Threats and harassment abound, but those on the front lines see progress

A vendor in Abuja, Nigeria, with a bottle of “Baba Aisha Herbal Medicine,” a concoction falsely advertised as a cure for malaria and other illnesses. Local fact-checkers discovered a so-called doctor had been spreading dangerously false claims about the supposed remedy on social media. Kemi Busari

February 21, 2025

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James Okong’o, a 2025 Nieman Fellow, was until recently a digital investigation journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP), covering Anglophone African countries from his base in Nairobi, Kenya.

It is not uncommon in Africa today for public figures to quietly retract debunked claims, or even to issue public apologies.

Take, for example, the apology issued by police in Nairobi, Kenya, after a colleague at Agence France-Presse and I uncovered their use of unrelated photos from past protests to hunt down individuals linked to violent anti-government demonstrations in 2023.

Such an official mea culpa would have been unthinkable in the time before journalistic fact-checking became an integral part of news operations in several African countries. But these verification efforts are increasingly in danger of being eliminated at news organizations struggling to remain viable amid funding and staffing cuts.

The recent announcement by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the company would stop using third-party fact-checkers on its platforms in the United States may have a serious impact...

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