In today’s fast-paced media landscape, discussions about older people’s ability to drive often drift into tricky territory, rife with stereotypes and prejudice. But is there more to the stereotypes than meets the eye? In this blog post, we have a closer look at how senior citizens are portrayed in the media and what responsibility the…
In an interview with the German news agency “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland” (RND), Stefan Gelbhaar, transport policy spokesman for the German political party “The Greens”, said: “After novice drivers, older people are the most likely to cause accidents per kilometre driven”. According to our research, this statement is mostly false. In the RND article “Driving in old…
On their official Instagram page, The Left group claimed: “58 million tonnes of waste annually go to waste in the EU.” Is this number correct, and what is it based on? How was this number calculated? After checking the facts, the claim turns out to be mostly true, as extra context and nuance is needed…
News platform Brussels Signal published an article in April, titled ”Two thirds of Poles oppose adoption of the euro, poll shows”. Brussels Signal’s founder and publisher is Patrick Egan, who has connections to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party. We began to question the claim because the platform’s political connections. However, we found in…
The claim “EU’s new environmental law bans bonfires in private property areas”, was stated on April 10 in an article by MV-lehti, a Finnish right-wing, fake news website, known from spreading misinformation. The claim turns out to be false. Celebratory bonfires are a prolonged tradition in Nordic countries, often lit during midsummer, Easter or Mayday…
YouTube favored far-right-wing videos in the run-up to the Finnish presidential election in 2024, claimed journalist Clothilde Goujard in Politico magazine on the 26th of March 2024. Goujard bases her claim on a well-known Finnish factchecker’s report. We checked the claim and found it uncheckable. According to experts, the data collecting period was not long…
On the 24th of April, euronews.green published an article regarding the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), that passed in the European Parliament on that same day. In the article, Matti Rantanen, director general of the European Paper Packaging Association (EPPA) is quoted calling the law “robust and evidence-based.” This claim comes as a surprise…
In a video, EU lead candidate of the right-wing populist party AfD, Maximilian Krah, criticized the EU digital laws that recently came into force. The Digital Service Act, for example, “is intended to prevent unorthodox and creative ideas from being shared on the internet”, said Krah. However, a look at the facts shows that this…
Amira Mohamed Ali, a German politician of the new left-conservative party ‘Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht’, claimed “The Ukrainian leadership says that it wants to continue fighting, but the many thousands of deserters who are trying to leave Ukraine say something different.” This statement turned out to be uncheckable. Amira Mohamed Ali has been a member of…
Dutch ECR Group vice president Robert Roos claims: “Energy and food are becoming more expensive and companies are leaving. It is time to stop the green deal.” This statement turned out to be mostly false. On 12 March 2024, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group) tweeted a quote from their vice president Robert…