This winter season students from the EJTA journalism schools will work together in cross-national teams on fact checks and blogs. A variety of European topics will be addressed: polarisation, climate change, migration, defence budgets and more. Follow us here or on our Twitter and Facebook page.
EUfactcheck, an initiative of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) fights misinformation about European policies and topics. Journalism students from all over Europe factcheck claims made by politicians and others and rate them. Our focus is not to debunk fake news or disinformation but to give correct information to the reader.
In April, Hanne Beirens, director of the Migration Policy Institute appeared on Terzake, a news show aired by the Flemish public broadcast organisation. As she and the television host discussed migrants drowning near the Libyan coast, Beirens mentioned that “Europe gave 700 million euros to Libya in the last six years.” That claim is mostly…
News about foreigners being able to get a free COVID vaccine in Serbia quickly went viral, so much that travel agencies soon started offering travel arrangements for vaccination in Serbia. In April 2021 the regional news cable channel N1 published an article on its web page in which the director of eUprava, Serbia’s official site…
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said: “Trade turnover with the European Union decreased in 2020, if you count the UK, by 21% compared to 2019.” The claim was published in the news outlet RT in 22.3.2021, and it seems to be true. Figure 1: RT article 22nd of March with claim RT is publicly…
An article, published on April 16th 2021 in South China Morning Post, suggests that the Pentagon team has developed a COVID-19-detecting chip that could be implanted under the skin. The claim turns out to be mostly false. Profusa Implantable BiosensorsThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United…
At the end of March, the Croatian Minister of Tourism and Sports, Nikolina Brnjac, when asked about tourism in Croatia, stated that “there are fewer bookings than in previous years, even for Easter, but more is expected from the end of May and in June, for which there is more interest by tourists.” Even though…
On March 31st, the Croatian Minister of Tourism and Sports, Nikolina Brnjac, declared that Croatia is fully prepared for the upcoming tourism season: “Croatia is fully ready to start tourist movements and that is the message we are sending to our emitting markets.” When looking at the preparations made by the Croatian Ministry of Tourism…
Corona had an impact on politics, society and the economy. No sector was spared. Thus, the pandemic also had an impact on the field of sexual and reproductive Health and Rights. Julia Konowrocka addressed this issue in her article “Let’s talk about sexual and reproductive Health and Rights: Not fully implemented before Covid-19 & suspended…
Pfizer-Biontech released a press release on the 31st of March announcing a 100 % efficacy rate on results in a Covid vaccine study on adolescents aged from 12 to 15. Several European news media reported on this. According to the study data, this claim is mostly true. However, Finnish experts say that to analyze the…
In January, Identity and Democracy Group posted the following via Twitter: “The European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for a new ‘Green Deal’, forcing Member states to go carbon-neutral by 2050, but takes a private jet for half her worldwide missions.” Although public tender data suggests an increase in private air travel…
On March 27th Bloomberg.com states that the blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given ship was due to the wind and that as a result, this has “left $10 billion worth of goods with nowhere to go”. The claim turns out to be mostly true. While the statements are correct, there are…
The most controversial Eurogroups of recent years took place on the last 9th of April: a video conference meeting that brought together all the economic ministers of the EU countries, in which the debate was about which measures should be activated in dealing with Coronavirus pandemic’s emergency. The conference ended relatively soon, there was no…
The Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center opened in Georgia in 2011, with funds from the U.S. Government within the framework of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program. The purpose of the center is to promote public health through detecting and tackling outbreaks of disease. Though the construction of the center was funded by the U.S.,…
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread very quickly in Italy. From February 21st, when the first case was diagnosed in Codogno (Lodi, Lombardy), more than 143.000 people have suffered from the virus and more than 18.000 have died throughout the country. Scientists calculated the infectiousness rate through the so called R0 factor- which indicates the number…
An outbreak of COVID-2019 pneumonia caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was recorded in Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. On March 11, the World Health Organization(WHO) declared a coronavirus pandemic in the world. According to Worldometerdata, on April 1, more than 889,213 people were infected worldwide, 188,352 patients were cured, and 44,322 people…
Analysing Vox’s position on gender violence has required us to frame the rise of right-wing movements in Europe, select claims from their leaders in media outlets and use relevant sources –reports by the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary and experts– to debunk their discourses.
During the elections or when important topical issues show up, a lot of factchecks will pop up. Factchecking is a concept that is particularly prevalent in politics. Partly due to Trump and his fake news, factchecking and politics go hand in hand. The checks are often not popular with all politicians, because they make sure that…
Five years ago the European Union adopted a Directive on reducing the consumption of light plastic bags, according to which it is necessary to cut down their consumption from 200 to 90 pieces per person per year by 2019, and down to 40 pieces by 2025. The most rational option is to stop the production…
While analyzing political statements in Croatian media, we discovered that the data we came across tend to be correct but incomplete. Incomplete in a sense that they’re not represented within context. Politicians like to focus on the positive side of their work, unfortunately that’s often at the expense of providing a full picture. Manipulating with…
The UK withdrawal from the European Union implies that after the expiration of the transitional period the EU laws will no longer be applicable to England. Trading with the countries outside the framework of the free trade agreement will be regulated by the World Trade Organization if these countries are its members. Although many agreements…
The European Union has been adding funds to the Mafia bosses’ accounts for seven years. From 2010 to 2017 10 million euros coming from EU funds have been allocated to 151 farms owned by Nebrodi’s family in Sicily. A massive fraud against the rural developments programmes (EAFRD) that has critically damaged the Italian rural economy.…
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
