LAGOS- Journalists at the Amplify In-depth Media Conference hosted by the Wole Soyinka Centre For Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in partnership with the MacAuthor Foundation and other critical stakeholders got mentored and updated on the use of fact checking tools to combat misinformation.
The two days conference which ran from the 8-9 December, 2022, at the NECA House, Lagos State, had the theme, “In-depth media and democratic governance.” It engaged stakeholders from the academia, an undercover journalist, award winning investigative journalists, journalism students and practitioners who reflected on the “State of democracy, the media profession, the practice of investigative journalism as to collectively decide on strategies to amplify the importance of the works of investigative reporters and the voices, especially of marginalized ones…”
The conference which incidentally coincided with the 17th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting (WSAIR), a celebration of outstanding investigative reportage which showcase the display of exceptional courage and resilience by journalists in the search for truth, for societal good, saw Taiwo Adebayo of Premium Times cruising home as the 2022 WSCIJ, “Journalist of the Year,” based on his “Pandora paper series” which exposed corruption at governance. He earlier emerged as the winner in the online category
Other category winners were Abdulaziz Abdulaziz who won the television category with his documentary, “Nigeria’s banditry- the inside story,” on Trust Television. Babatunde Okunola won the radio category with his report, “Gold rushes and land grabs,” aired on Diamond Radio, Ilesha. The print category went to Juliana Francis of New Telegraph with her write up, “For filthy lucre, police truncate defilement, rape cases, deny victims justice.”
The Editorial Cartoon Category went to Victor Asowata of, The Will Newspaper for his cartoon, “Weaponised poverty,” while the photography category was won by Deji Lambo of Punch newspaper with the picture, “Poisonous ponmo.”
In recognition of the works of social crusaders who fight for the cause of others, the “Human Rights Defender Award” was bestowed on Abiola Akiyode- Afolabi, a civil rights advocate while the “Lifetime award for journalism excellence” was awarded to Stella Din-Jacob.
