UNCHECKABLE: “Russian workers are twice less productive than Italian ones”

On November 10, 2020, at 20:28 the Internet version of the Russian edition of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” published an article with the headline: “To Catch up with Italy Russia has to Fire Half of its Workers”. Anastasia Bashkatova, Deputy Head of the Economics Department of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov saying that…

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True: “Only 4% of Dutch nature reserves are in good condition and the number of wild animals has halved since 1990”

“Only four per cent of Dutch nature reserves are in good condition. The number of wild animals has halved since 1990,” states Dutch political party D66 in its election programme for 2021. With these statements, D66 tries to convince Dutch citizens to support the party in the upcoming national elections. D66 promises to create more…

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Mostly true: “The Netherlands has one of the largest social housing sectors in Europe but the waiting list for social housing averages nine years”

Dutch political party VVD states in its current election programme (2021) that the Netherlands has one of the largest social rental sectors in Europe but that the waiting lists for social housing average nine years. The party promises to make social housing more available to people with smaller incomes by stimulating richer people to move…

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Mostly true: “Tourists in Barcelona will not be able to rent an apartment”

Since the 26 of August, 2020, in Barcelona in the north-east of Spain, there is a ban, according to which Barcelona citizens cannot offer tourists accommodation in their apartments. The same day polish newspaper claimed that “Tourists in Barcelona will not be able to rent an apartment”, but this interpretation isn’t completely true.  On August 26th, the Autonomous Government of…

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Uncheckable: In Brussels, the trade fair for live goods began. Children are put up for sale

Wpolitce.pl – a popular Polish right-wing news portal and TVP Info, a state news channel, report on alleged human trafficking taking place at Men Having Babies conference in Brussels. Misconception caused by terminology used in an article Due to the conservative predilection of the reporter – Grzegorz Górny – an article gains a tabloid tint.…

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False: Croatian filmmaker Šulina won the “enviable” Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award

News about a Croatian amateur film director Mr Mario Šulina receiving the Golden Lion award for his film “Adam” stirred controversy in Croatia. In December 2020 commercial TV channel RTL published on its webpage RTL.hr an article with the following title: ”’Golden Lion’ went to Đakovo this year: Director Šulina in the interview for RTL.hr…

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True: “Emissions of bestselling plug-in hybrid cars are higher than advertised”

On the November 23 2020 Focus Association for Sustainable Development tweeted that: “Tests made by the Transport and Environment campaign group show that emissions of the three bestselling plug-in hybrid cars are 28–89% higher than advertised.” We rate it as true. In the tweet from the official account of Focus Association for Sustainable Development, the…

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Uncheckable: “Pancreatitis, not poison, caused Alexei Navalny to fall ill”

In the case of the collapse of Alexei Navalny, Russian officials claim that “pancreatitis, not poison, caused Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to fall ill.” While the EU assumes poisoning, Russian officials are convinced that pancreatitis was the cause. Since no access to medical records is available, the claim is uncheckable”. First of all, a brief…

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fact checking

Mostly false: “PCR tests do not tell if someone is infected or contagious”

On 20 October 2020 Slovenian TV presenter Marko Potrč claimed in his Facebook post that the tests performed to detect the presence of the virus (PCR) do not tell if someone is actually infected or even contagious. He said that dr. Lejko Zupanc, infectious disease specialist, also had to admit this on national television. This…

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