In May 2024 the EUfactcheck programme successfully factchecked the EU elections for the second time. From academic year 2024-205 onwards the EUfactcheck programme will offer two different ‘tracks’ for EJTA member schools to participate.
* Individual schools can still use the EUfactcheck website as a platform to publish their students’ factchecks. This can be done at any convenient moment throughout the year, that fits the curriculum of the study programme. Please contact the EUfactcheck editorial team.
* Each year another EJTA member school will organise an intensive factchecking week, the EUfactcheck Lab, funded by Erasmus short mobility. Other EJTA member schools are welcome to join with up to 6 students and one teacher (Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme). Please contact the EUfactcheck programme manager for more details. In 2024 the EUfactcheck Lab covered the EU elections, in 2025 the topic is ‘Climate Reporting’.
EUfactcheck, an initiative of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) fights mis- and disinformation about European policies and topics. Journalism students from all over Europe factcheck claims and statements made by politicians and others and rate them. Our focus is not to debunk fake news but to give correct information to the reader.
Alice Weidel, chairwoman of the right wing party AfD, claimed 789 cases of gang rape for 2022 in an interview with the German newsmedia “Welt”, aiming to argue the necessity of a deportation initiative. After further investigation this statement, given after a session of the German Bundestag regarding migration on November 8th, 2023, turned out…
On 6 February 2024, rnd.de published the article „Europas großes Klimapaket: Wie grün ist die EU nach vier Jahren Green Deal?“ with statements by politician Jutta Paulus (Grüne/EFA) that the focus of the Commission’s Green Deal has shifted and that laws are only being passed through Parliament in a much weaker form or are failing…
Apple marked Earth Day with a major emissions cut claim: On April 16, 2025, Apple Inc., the American multinational technology company, announced that it has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent since 2015 in celebration of Earth Day. This milestone is part of the company’s broader initiative to fully decarbonize its manufacturing and…
In June 2024, during public communications about the Neptun Deep offshore gas project, Christina Verchere, CEO of OMV Petrom, stated that “the Neptun Deep project does not induce a significant impact on environmental and socio-economic factors” and “is a strategic project for Romania and the EU, it will contribute to the country’s energy independence and…
On March 25th of 2025, Patrice Onwuka wrote an article for the Independent Women’s Forum entitled “To close the pay gap, make different choices.” In this article, she claims: “There is no gender pay gap. This is a simple truth hidden from generations of women because it contradicts the Left’s narrative about victimhood in the…
On February 20, 2025, three days before the federal election in Germany, Alice Weidel, party leader of the AfD, claimed during the “Wahl 2025 Schlussrunde” on ARD and ZDF that the reason for the steadily rising health insurance contributions are the millions of people who were allowed into the statutory health insurance system by political…
In the FDP party`s election program for the federal election in February 2025 the party addresses the question whether the speed limit would make German highways safer and save a lot of carbon dioxide. The party declares: „No, both is not right.” This factcheck focuses on the second part of that claim. Especially because the…
On May 27, 2025, Thorsten Frei, Head of the German Chancellery, stated on the ARD talk show Maischberger: “Everyone who works full-time earns enough to live on”. This statement is false. The Context: A Heated Debate on Work and Wages On May 27, 2025, CDU politician and Head of the German Chancellery Thorsten Frei appeared…
During a public hearing at the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Tax Matters (FISC) on 6 February 2025, Dutch Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra claimed that only 20% of companies are responsible for around 97% of the emissions. His claim turns out to be mostly false. Public hearing at the Committee on Tax Matters (FISC)…
On January 8, 2025, Friedrich Merz, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, stated in an interview with the newspaper Welt that “Dual citizenship will thus become the rule in our citizenship law” and that “it will bring additional problems into the country.” To assess this statement, we first examine whether dual citizenship has indeed become the…
How the debate about crime committed by foreigners leads to migrants being perceived as dangerous in public opinion, even though most of them behave in accordance with the law and what that does to those affected. Thick raindrops struggle through gray air, their course changed by branches whipping in an approaching storm. A thin ray…
Jutta Paulus from the Green Party has criticised the Green Deal to rnd.de. However, as the subject of the Green Deal is so extensive and involves so many laws, it is worth taking a closer look. Why are we looking at the Green Deal in more detail? The European Green Deal is an EU package…
We decided to analyse the German and Polish media to find out what the countries think about the temporarily reintroduced border controls at the German border with Poland. Border controls were introduced on 16 October 2023 and have since been extended until mid-June 2024. We analyzed various articles. In the German media, we used well-known…
After spending weeks researching the Neptun Deep gas project, we kept returning to the same question: Why is Romania investing billions in fossil fuels when it could lead in clean energy instead? At first glance, Neptun Deep looks like progress: a huge offshore project, promising jobs, growth, and “energy independence.” But when you look closer,…
The gender wage gap remains one of the most persistent indicators of inequality in the global labor market. According to a report by OECD, “Gender gaps in paid and unpaid work persist”, women are less likely than men to be employed, to work part-time, to put in fewer hours at paid jobs, and to put…
An American’s comparative analysis on Germany and the United States’ climate policies to see the different ways we are coming together to reach climate neutrality and curb climate change. As an American studying abroad in Germany, there are many similarities and differences I have seen in the cultural day-to-day life. One thing that is vastly…
In addition to critically questioning the source, journalists must also learn to interpret statistics correctly. A basic knowledge of statistics is usually enough. Fake statistics At the beginning of April, a graphic relating to the Russian recapture of the Kursk region appeared on the messenger service Telegram. The supposed graphic from Statista shows how many…
Populism thrives on simple messages in complex times. Political scientist Andreas Klee explains to Sophie Hecker and Nike Tecklenborg why populist strategies—provocative, oversimplified, and emotionally affirming—resonate so strongly, and what they mean for the future of democracy. The Definition of Populist Communication Tecklenborg: Let’s start with a basic question: What are typical features of populist…
A network of websites is spreading AI-generated clickbait in many languages. It looks like harmless entertainment but often includes unverified health tips and misleading content. Linked to domains in Russia and admins in Armenia, this network uses AI and anonymity to quietly misinform people across countries. As part of our investigation into inauthentic networks in…
Even though the pandemic is over, coordinated networks of Facebook pages and websites continue to exploit people’s health fears to drive traffic and generate revenue. Modern digital platforms enable groups to build networks of websites and Facebook pages that look independent but work together. These networks may have various goals – from political influence to…
EUFACTCHECK is the fact-checking project of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) that intends to build a sustainable curriculum unit on fact-checking within a European network of Journalism schools.
Through fact-checking European political claims and trying to tackle misinformation, we want our students and our public to grow a deeper insight and interest in democratic processes, both on national and European level.
EUFACTCHECK wishes to motivate fact-based debate in the EU and to stimulate media and information literacy.
After the success of the students’ publications, the participants of EJTA’s fact-checking project EUFACTCHECK decided at the EJTA AGM in Paris (July 2019) to move on with the project and to take new steps in the academic year 2019-2020.
By January-February 2019 a manual with guidelines and tips & tricks was published. In February 2020 a second Bootcamp will be organised in Ljubljana, with financial help from the Evens Foundation. This Train the Trainer focused on Central Eastern European countries, some new schools joined this project.
During corona the EJTA-schools continued to verify claims and publish fact checks. Now we are looking ahead to the 2024 EU elections.
For information about the EUfactcheck project please contact the programme manager: carien.touwen@hu.nl
