‘Fake news is the currency with which opinion shapers peddle their influence’
The growth of fact checking in Africa has established one cardinal fact: sources and spreaders of fake news are routinely opinion shapers. At government level, they are in the executive, the judiciary, the legislature or security formations. Beyond the government, the business community, keen to have advantage over rivals, spreads...
Fake vs fact: Disinformation risks security, public health and democracy in Africa
The rise in disinformation in Africa poses a threat to security, public health and democracy, fact-checkers warn. The African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies (ACSSS) says combatting misinformation requires building the capacity of Africa’s fact-checking community and improving media literacy. The process, they say, is painstakingly slow and risky...
Science needs data and evidence from the arts to effectively roll back coronavirus
One key issue is who is being called on to aid recovery. Governments have sought expert advice from the beginning of the pandemic, but that expertise tended to come from people in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) – despite it being clear from the start that human behaviour, motivations...
Storm before a lull: African economies to bounce back after coronavirus chaos
Africa is set to recover from its worst recession in half a century. Real gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow by 3.4 per cent in 2021 after contracting by an estimated 2.1 per cent in 2020, mainly due to Covid-19 related disruptions. The estimates are based on the...
EU slaps sanctions on South Sudan army general for human rights violations
The European Union has imposed sanctions on a South Sudanese army general allegedly involved in serious human rights violations, such as arbitrary executions and killings, the Sudan Tribune reports. Citing EU statement issued on Monday the agency reported that Maj-Gen Gabriel Moses Lokujo of South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF)...
Journals forced to change editorial review processes to combat organised fraud
Journal editors know that if they reject manuscripts they suspect to be fabricated, that might not kill the paper forever. Fraudulent manuscripts can be submitted to multiple journals at the same time: so even if an editor rejects it during peer review, they might see it published elsewhere. This has...
Volume of ‘junk science’ wreaking havoc on credibility of Chinese research – editors
In 2013, Science reported on a market for authorships on research papers in China. In 2017, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said it would crack down on misconduct after a scandal in which 107 papers were retracted at the journal Tumor Biology. The peer reviews of the papers had...
Research-integrity sleuths warn Chinese scientists buy papers to boost careers
When Laura Fisher noticed striking similarities between research papers submitted to RSC Advances, she grew suspicious. None of the papers had authors or institutions in common, but their charts and titles looked alarmingly similar, says Fisher, the executive editor at the journal. “I was determined to try to get to...
Kenya Rugby Union unveils plans to take the sport to the grassroots
The Kenya Rugby Union has made public its strategic plans to develop the game. The implementation of the plans kicks off this weekend when the development and training and education departments host a Get into Rugby course on Saturday March 20 at the Impala Grounds in the capital Nairobi. In...
Internet users in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria hit by malware in their devices
There is a common misconception that the most dangerous threats to encounter on modern users’ digital journeys are likely to appear during Internet surfing. The reality, however, based on the most recent analysis of cyberattacks in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria in 2020 by Kaspersky experts demonstrates that users are...
