UPDATE: Tembisa 10 entry scrapped from Global Media Awards

It has emerged that the fake Tembisa 10 story has been removed as a shortlisted entry for the Global Media Awards.

The story, first published by Independent Media’s Pretoria News last year was entered under the category, “Best Use of Social Media” in the International News Media Awards (INMA).

One of the International News Media Awards (INMA) judges Thomas Baekdal posted the news of the entry being scrapped on Twitter.

“The entry has been removed (note: I don’t know when they did this … the decision might have been made before I tweeted this).”

Baekdal also lambasted the body for shortlisting the fake Tembisa 10 story.

“What the actual… @INMAorg. I am one of the [jurors] for this year’s award (although not in this category), and this should very clearly render the entry invalid.”

Baekdal wrote that as jurors, they presume that all the information provided to them is accurate, both in terms of the result and the entry itself.

“We do this simply because there is no way that we can judge the factfulness. We have to trust what we are told. So, when we now hear that an entry was made up, and the result was achieved based on untruthfulness … and worse, that  @INMAorg will not invalidate the score, this offends me deeply as a juror.”

ALSO READ: Sanef appalled after false decuplets story shortlisted for global award

The INMA has issued a statement on the Tembisa 10 entry saying certain concerns were brought to its attention regarding a social media campaign promoting a baby trade story in South Africa.

“INMA understands how important trust is to news media. The shortlist process can be, and in this instance, has been used to provide additional information which the judges had no access to at the time of judging.”

“Given the opportunity to review information from all parties related to the concerns raised, our international judges have reconsidered the entry, and it is no longer a finalist. We respect the jury’s decision,” the INMA said.

The Citizen has also learnt that the CEO of Africa Community Media Independent Newspapers is also on the board of INMA, the body that had shortlisted the fake Tembisa 10 story for the Global Media Awards.

The INMA Board of Directors is the association’s governing body, responsible for the strategy and direction of INMA worldwide.

Often referred to as the “International Board”, volunteers serve two- and three-year terms and are elected annually by INMA members.

There has been widespread criticism of the INMA’s decision to shortlist the story of the so-called birth of decuplets in Gauteng.

The newspaper ran an “exclusive story” last year about a 37-year-old woman who apparently earned her place in the Guinness Book of Records after carrying and delivering 10 babies.

After much speculation on whether the story was true or not, it was later confirmed by the family and the Gauteng Health Department that the woman by the name of Gosiame Sithole was not pregnant and there were no 10 babies.

However, Pretoria News editor Piet Rampedi stuck to his guns and said he believed that Sithole was pregnant with 10 babies and even went as far as to claim that criticism of his reporting was a personal attack on him.

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) called on the INMA to remove the shortlisting.

However, INMA stated it is “not in a position to reverse their jury’s decision to shortlist the social media campaign, given the information at their disposal during the judging process in February 2022, the additional context surrounding the story will be weighed in the ongoing process to select winners which will be announced by INMA in June 2022.”

Sanef said INMA’s decision was unacceptable.

“This response is unfortunately not good enough for Sanef, as it legitimises a campaign borne out of a story that has been proven not only to be ludicrous, but also an embarrassment to South African journalism.”

Bakedal said the decision to shortlist the fake Tembisa 10 story hurts the reputation of INMA as an organisation, and it hurts the reputation of them as jurors.

Sanef said Pretoria News which published the Tembisa 10 story is a paying member of INMA and continues to publish more stories that seek to purport the legitimacy of the decuplets’ so-called birth.

ALSO READ: Independent’s decuplet baby smuggling claims ‘false rumour mongering’ – hospital