By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, May 08, GNA—The 2026 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking and Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Fellowship will commence on June 1, 2026, following an intensive three-day virtual pre-fellowship training for selected journalists across West Africa.
The fellowship, organised by DUBAWA, seeks to strengthen verification, accountability journalism, and efforts to combat misinformation and information disorder within the sub-region.
The selected fellows underwent a rigorous selection process involving applications, interviews, and final evaluations before participating in a mandatory three-day virtual training held from Wednesday, May 6 to Friday, May 8, 2026.
The training brought together 13 journalists from various newsrooms across West Africa and exposed participants to fact-checking methodologies, media literacy, verification and OSINT tools, ethical reporting, and the evolving landscape of misinformation.
The sessions were designed to strengthen information integrity and sanitise the information ecosystem by equipping journalists with practical digital verification and investigative skills.
The three-month fellowship, scheduled to run from June 1 to August 31, 2026, will focus on practical fact-checking and OSINT applications, mentorship sessions, and the production of fact-checks and investigative reports.
Named after renowned Ghanaian media scholar and press freedom advocate, Professor Kwame Karikari, the fellowship has become one of West Africa’s leading media development initiatives focused on strengthening evidence-based journalism and restoring public trust in the media.
Now in its eighth year, the programme has emerged as a key intervention in tackling information disorder across the region.
A major component of the fellowship is the integration of Open-Source Intelligence techniques into journalism practice to help fellows trace digital footprints, authenticate user-generated content, and identify coordinated disinformation campaigns online.
In a statement, DUBAWA said that beyond technical training, the fellowship also promoted an ethical and public-interest approach to fact-checking, recognising verification as a critical tool for protecting vulnerable communities from harmful misinformation.
The organisation cited a recent study titled “Uptake and Sustainability of Fact-Checking Practice Beyond a Journalism Fellowship in West Africa,” which found that the fellowship had significantly enhanced participants’ verification and investigative skills, thereby strengthening local fact-checking ecosystems and supporting more credible public discourse across West Africa.
The study was jointly conducted by Raheemat Adeniran and Rasaki Raji, both past fellows of the programme.
Published in the African Journalism Studies journal, the study evaluated the long-term impact of the DUBAWA Fact-Checking Fellowship, an annual six-month programme launched in 2019 to promote verification culture across the Anglophone West African sub-region.
Since its inception, the fellowship has graduated six cohorts of journalists from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Senegal and Ivory Coast, providing them with intensive training and mentorship to combat the growing misinformation and disinformation within their societies.
DUBAWA is an independent verification and fact-checking project initiated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development to amplify the culture of truth in public discourse, public policy, and journalistic practice across West Africa.
The organisation operates in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and The Gambia, collaborating with newsrooms, civic organisations, and technology-driven institutions to promote credible information ecosystems within the region.
GNA
Reporter: Eric Appah Marfo
[email protected]
Edited by Samuel Osei-Frempong