Mr Ibrahim Khalilulahi Usman, a Ghanaian investigative science journalist, has won the Best News Story / Feature Category at the Africa Science Journalism Awards, for his investigative piece on coastal erosion in Ghana.
Presently in its second phase, the awards organised by the Science For Africa Foundation seek to honour journalists whose reporting strengthens public understanding of science and combats misinformation across the continent.
The announcement was made during the just-concluded 13th World Conference of Science Journalists in Pretoria, South Africa, marking the event’s first-ever African host.
“These awards recognises more than excellence. We celebrate the vital forces behind it, the courage to investigate, the persistence to verify, and the creativity to translate are the qualities our finalists exemplified,” Dr Evelyn Gitau, the Chief Scientific Officer, SFA Foundation said.
She said each winner used their talent not just to report, but to ignite public curiosity, safeguard factual discourse, and demonstrate that science was not locked away in institutions but a living, breathing part of Africa’s daily life and future.
In his acceptance speech, the award-winning science journalist, reframed journalism’s fundamental challenge in the AI era.
Referencing Tom Kovach and Rosenstiel’s 2001 book “The Elements of Journalism,” he highlighted the first principle: that journalism’s obligation was to the truth.
Twenty-five years ago, that statement addressed traditional verification challenges, he said.
He said presently with AI generating and assisting in content creation, science journalists faced dual verification requirements.
“As science journalists, our responsibility is to prioritise truth, leveraging AI responsibly to enhance our work. This means we’ve two tasks,” he noted.
He stressed that “Verifying information created with AI by humans and verifying information created by humans using AI was a challenging task, but it presents an opportunity to use AI responsibly and had enhanced journalistic reporting,” he stressed
Khalilulahi’s award-winning investigation, supported by Dialogue Earth and Wits University, required four months of research and fact-checking.
That timeline, he explained, reflected the depth necessary for responsible science journalism in an era where AI could generate plausible-sounding but potentially inaccurate content at scale.
GNA
