At the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Croatian centre-right party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) Women’s Association, Croatian President Mrs Kolinda Grabar Kitarović said that all successful Croatian women are both conservative and members of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The claim turns out to be false. The Croatian Democratic Union is currently the…
The Cigarette Manufacturers of Belgium and Luxembourg (CIMABEL) falsely claim that there is no scientific study that proves neutral packaging of cigarettes makes people smoke less. As of January 1st 2020 the packaging of cigarettes will be neutral in Belgium. The country will be the fifth in Europe that follows the trend of making its…
On August 9th, 2019 the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) stated the following on Facebook: “The latest figures from the United Nations show that by now one in three immigrants and asylum seekers does not reach Italy via Lampedusa or Sicily, but rather comfortably on a yacht on the eastern route.” It is true that…
During the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award speech, President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović stated that she was born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. This statement provoked numerousreactions from the media and a storm of reactions on social networks.Kitarović was born in Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia until 1991. Althoughcommunist-run, Yugoslavia was independent from Eastern Bloc…
President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen claimed the gender pay gap is at 16% in Europe. Von der Leyen tweeted this on November 4th and promised to close this gap. The claim turns out to be true. The 4th November of 2019 is Equal Pay Day. In honour of Equal Pay Day,…
On the 22nd of October an article appeared in De Standaard, a Belgian newspaper. It quoted the Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon (N-VA) who stated that Brexit already brought 42 companies and 2,000 jobs to Flanders, Belgium. Where did they get that specific number? Jambon made that comment in the Flemish Parliament earlier that day in…
The information that the Queen has signed the bill was published by the Russian news agency Interfax on September 9, 2019. It says that Queen Elizabeth II has approved the document that postpones the country’s exit from the European Union if there is no agreement with Brussels by October 31, 2019, which allows to go…
Rumours have it that the EJTA project EUfactcheck is definitely going to stop after 26 May 2019. The political debates died down, the EU elections are all over. However, we consider the rumours to be false. Why would EUfactcheck continue to exist when there are no more election campaigns? That’s the argument behind the gossip…
On the 12th of May 2019, Maltese leader of the Nationalist Party, Adrian Delia, stated in Times of Malta that the upcoming European elections are “a referendum on abortion.” He continues that every seat going to the Labour Party would be a seat in the European Parliament in favour of abortion. Malta is the only…
AWAITING ELECTION RESULTS WE REPOST OUR MOST QUOTED FACT-CHECK On March the 4th Dutch leader of the right-wing Forum for Democracy Thierry Baudet reacted to a statement by liberal politician Rob Jetten about homophobia in The Netherlands. Baudet stated on Twitter: ,,Jetten’s anger about the increased homophobia in The Netherlands is justified, but he doesn’t…
When you live in a democratic country, there’s no reason to deny that politicians have a very big influence on the people. It’s their job to make us feel safe, guarded, keep the economy flowing, provide enough jobs and make sure the country works the way it’s supposed to work. Still we don’t always see…
The Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia is a framework for cooperation proposed by the EU to non-EU member states. The agreement advocates for the creation of European standards and includes a range of different areas for cooperation such as free trade, implementation of EU legal practices, visa free movement, consumer protection and reforms…
51.9% of voting citizens supported Brexit at a referendum on June 23, 2016. 3 years after the process has not been finished yet. There is information every week in British media that Brexit has been postponed. The parties cannot develop a mutually acceptable agreement that will neutralize any drawbacks of Brexit.
In Georgia, European Parliament election 2019 has been covered in traditional media outlets, and in online and social media as well. Traditional media outlets mostly focused on the actual election days, while the election campaigns got less attention. The same approach was applied in part of online/social media too. We monitored major TV stations and…
Most students, deeply entrenched in data research, have ‘grabbed’ for pizzas, at some time or another. So have I. Over the past three years I’ve been on the other end of the table, coaching young fact-checkers on their journeys to yet another election. Helping them to find their way in heaps of data, supporting them…
The Netherlands were one of the first to vote in the European parliamentary elections, on Thursday 23 May. The weeks ahead of the voting day are always filled with political statements and confused voters: who do you vote for and where do you vote? After all it is an ordinary working day and some people…
Leader of the political party Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Isa Mustafa, tweeted on the 17th of June 2017 that his Kosovan party is a member of the European People’s Party, the largest political group in the European Parliament.
On 7 March 2019 the Dutch website RTL News published an article titled: “Sustainable thinker often the worst polluter”. The article claimed that several connections could be made between sustainable thinking and polluting behaviour. In other words: those who claimed to worry about the environment were often the ones who polluted more.
The world community is concerned about possible interference in election process. The expected threat comes from definite counties, but is there another stakeholder, interested in elections outcome as well as governments, and similarly powerful?
In a Brexit Party rally in April 2019, Nigel Farage claimed according to the Daily Mail: “What we are now fighting for is much, much, bigger than Brexit […] what we are now fighting for is for the survival of the very principle of democracy in this country.” This statement refers to a conceived lack…
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.
At the EJTA Teachers’ Conference in Dortmund (October 2019) practical details were discussed and a new publication schedule was created for autumn 2019.
By January-February 2019 a manual with guidelines and tips & tricks will be published and on 13-14 February 2020 a second Bootcamp will be organised in Ljubljana, with financial help from the Evens Foundation. This Train the Trainer will be focussing on Central Eastern European countries, but also on new participants that want to publish on the platform.
All the information about this event: nadia.vissers@ap.be
“What is this politician saying??” Did you read or hear a politician or public figure make a questionable claim? Send us an email with the claim and maybe we will fact-check it.
Please include the source (url and date) where you found the claim.
