fact checking

Mostly False: The Belgian labor market does not need immigrant workers

Belgian Member of Parliament Hans Verreyt [of the nationalistic Vlaams Belang party] was quoted saying, “The inactivity rate among non-EU foreigners is 44.2 percent and among women it is even 59.3 percent,” in his party’s official article. These figures are correct. However, Verreyt carries on: “Anyone who continues to argue that migration is necessary to…

Mostly true: Russia abandons International Space Station: It could fall on Europe!

This fact check examines the origin and authenticity of the statement “Russia abandons International Space Station: It could fall on Europe!“, made on April 3rd in an article published by the Spanish daily sport newspaper Marca. The article says that Russia has ended its cooperation with Western countries regarding the International Space Station and allows…

Media analysis: Finnish news media emphasized “aiding” in the coverage of Ukraine war whereas “uncontrolled immigration” in 2015

In our media analysis, we compare news about Ukrainian war refugees to the news about the refugee crisis in 2015. All news were published by Finnish public media broadcasting company Yle. We wanted to see if there is a difference in how media writes about people fleeing from Ukraine and refugees in 2015. We found…

Uncheckable: „Only three people died in the construction of stadiums for the FIFA world cup in Qatar”

On January 26, 2022, FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino said at the European Council in Strasbourg that only three workers died in construction of football stadiums for World Cup 2022 in Qatar. He said: “When I hear today that 6,500 people died in the building of football stadiums in Qatar, it is simply not true. Because…

False: “500 000 people participated in Berlin in a demonstration against the Russian invasion”

Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February, which led to worldwide protests. One of the many protests took place in Berlin, organized by the German non-governmental organization Campact. It organized multiple protests following the invasion, but the one on the 27th of February struck out because of the high number of participants. According to…

Mostly true: Jews are feeling increasingly insecure due to Covid-19

Pincheas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of the European Rabbis, claims that “Jews are feeling increasingly insecure. Corona has worsened the whole situation and the inhibitions are getting lower (…).” Is Goldschmidt’s concern reasonable? Partly, yes.  On 14 February 2022, the German news website tagesschau.de published an article on the “New danger of old…

Mostly False: “German taxpayers have the highest tax and contribution burden in the world”

After the German government decided in April to provide one billion euros in military aid to Ukraine, critical voices were raised, especially from the opposition. On April 16, 2022 the deputy federal spokesperson of the right-wing party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) Georg Pazderski wrote on Twitter: “It is not Scholz who is providing more than…

Mostly False: “Whoever has been injected with that scary ‘vaccine’ can claim compensation in Denmark“

On the 12th of August 2022 the Dutch far right party leader Thierry Baudet of opposition party Forum Voor Democratie responded to an article of Danish news website DR. The article was about three Danes who received compensation because of the rare side effect the three suffered from after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca. Baudet…