At least 10 verified signatories to the International Fact-Checking Network were publicly awarded 25 times for the impressive work they did this year.
Poligrafo, in Portugal, ranks as No. 1 for awards. The platform, founded by journalist Fernando Esteves, had an amazing year and collected nine journalism awards. It is Portugal’s first platform to be 100% focused on fact-checking — and the country had a few elections this year.
Maldita.es, in Spain, received four recognitions. One of them was given to the project that only deals with false content regarding migration. Another went to the one focused on scientific issues. Clara Jimenez was selected by Ashoka as one of their 2019 fellows.
In the past months, the world saw many fact-checking coalitions born. But the collaborative project Reverso, lead by Chequeado, AFP Factual, First Draft and Pop-Up Newsroom in Argentina during the last presidential campaign, seems to be the most important of the year. It has already gathered three national recognitions for having managed to make more than 100 media outlets fight misinformation together as a team.
Below you will find the full list of prizes, awards and recognitions, divided by continent. This list was built by the IFCN with the help of the fact-checking community and can be updated any time.
AMERICAS
Reverso (Argentina) — 3
The collaborative project Reverso, lead by Chequeado, AFP Factual, First Draft and Pop-Up Newsroom in Argentina during its last presidential campaign, received from Círculo de Creativos Argentinos two Golden Diente prizes and a Silver one. The entity conceded Reverso a recognition as one of the projects that added the most value to public communication during 2019.
Aos Fatos (Brazil) — 2
In 2019, Aos Fatos was an Online Journalism Awards finalist in General Excellence in the Micronewsrooms category, issued by the Online News Association. The Brazilian fact-checking organization also won the first Cláudio Weber Abramo Data Journalism Awards in the innovation category with the @fatimabot project.
FactCheck.org (USA) — 1
The U.S.-based fact-checking organization beat big brands like BuzzFeedNews, The Guardian, The Intercept and The Washington Post to win the 2019 Webby Award in the News & Politics website category. It is awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Read more about it here.
Agencia Lupa (Brazil) — 1
DW Akademie, in cooperation with GIZ, chose Agencia Lupa as the Brazilian journalism startup that will help them implement a project to bring together 15 well-selected innovative and digital media entrepreneurs from all over the world. The group has already met in Kieve, Hamburg and Berlin.
EUROPE
Poligrafo (Portugal) — 9
Before celebrating its first anniversary, Poligrafo, from Portugal, won nine prizes. Seven of them came from Premios Meios & Publicidade and the other two from Premios Navegantes. The organization was considered the best digital revelation of the year and the best website in both competitions.
Maldita (Spain) — 4
Maldita.es was selected by Telefónica and Compromiso Empresarial magazine as one of the best initiatives in the use of transparency and good governance. Maldita Ciencia was among the winners of the Antama Foundation’s scientific divulgation prizes for its reporting on the application of new technologies in agriculture, climate and nutrition. Maldita Migración was awarded the social compromise distinction at the Afrosocialist Prizes. And, for the relationship the platform keeps with its community, co-founder Clara Jiménez Cruz was selected by Ashoka as one of their 2019 fellows.
Teyit (Turkey) — 1
In Turkey, the Independent Media Accelerator selected Teyit’s new website project to build a membership program. The idea is to increase reader engagement and develop community-based fact-checking.
Newtral (Spain) — 1
This year Newtral and one of its engineers, María Benavente, received the Best Data Journalism Award in the Data Science Awards given by Telefonica. These awards are intended to reward innovative projects in the area of journalism and communication. Benavente project (“Analysis and comparison of similar techniques between texts, oriented to their application to fact-checking”) compares two claims to detect if they refer to the same fact. The automation of processes and the use of artificial intelligence to facilitate the work of journalist “fact-checkers” is one of the main lines of work of the Newtral innovation and technology team.
OCEANIA
RMIT ABC Fact Check (Australia) — 2
In Australia, RMIT ABC Fact Check won two very distinguished recognitions this year: the Business Higher Education Round Table (BHERT) award for the partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and RMIT University, and a Victorian Homelessness Media Award (in the long-form and investigative category) for working on the issue across a variety of platforms: web interactive, video and Facebook Live.
MIDDLE EAST/ASIA
The Whistle (Israel) — 1
The Whistle, in Israel, won The DIGIT Award, given annually by Google and Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya to journalists and innovative publications that have a significant contribution to Israeli online journalism.
Cristina Tardáguila is the associate director of the International Fact-Checking Network and the founder of Agência Lupa. She can be reached at ctardaguila@poynter.org.
