Liberia’s first fact-checking newsroom

The Stage Media (TSM) is Liberia’s first fact-checking media institution, with the overarching vision of mitigating misinformation and disinformation.

Since its establishment in 2020, The Stage Media – Liberia has collaborated and nurtured partnerships that espoused the values of tackling misinformation and disinformation while bringing to light untold stories of survivors of abuse or civil war, and ensuring that the powerful and elites are held accountable.

We check the statements of politicians, economists, businesspersons, public figures, the media, and viral content on social networks, and classify them from “true” to “false” according to their consistency with the facts and data to which they refer. We also produce explanations to put issues on the public agenda in context, and we carry out journalistic investigations on key and little-discussed issues — with a specific focus on anti-corruption in the security and justice sector, documenting the practices and norms that obscure accountability for the powerful.

TSM was founded by journalists Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo and Hannah Nawai Geterminah. It is governed by a Board of Directors of five members drawn from law, economics, sociology, political science and technology, alongside an Advisory Board of national and international researchers, journalists and communicators.