This spring season students from the EJTA journalism schools will once again check statements about topics in the upcoming EU elections. In their home universities and in cooperation with students from other EJTA schools they will produce fact checks, analyses and blogs. We expect to publish the first posts in early April. Follow us here or on X and on our 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.
At the beginning of September 2021, a video report appeared on the website of the television news network Euronews with this headline: “Covid-19 divides Europe into two parts”. The author refers to the results of a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), which appeared in the same month. However, Euronews’ claim, that…
Nikola Milina, the head of Croatian police, said that the violent pushbacks at the Croatian-Bosnian border filmed in October 2021 were an “individual event” and that he doesn’t want that to “affect the praise the police receive for their everyday sacrificial work”. Data from NGOs and media reports show that these events may have been…
On September 7th 2021, Alice Weidel, member of the German parliament and part of the AfD, a right-winged populist party, claimed that only 11% of German citizens feel free in their everyday lives. She stated that the disoriented and excessive corona policy of the German federal government has played a considerable role in this. We…
German politician Stephan Pilsinger (CSU) has criticized the considerations of the newly elected German government to decriminalize cannabis. He claims that after legalization, cannabis consumption will increase. Pilsinger refers to studies from the USA. Even though there are numbers which support his claim, there is no clear evidence that legalization automatically leads to more consumption.…
On 22nd of September 2021, the member of the Austrian National Council Dr. Dagmar Belakowitsch made a statement during a speech in front of the national council where she talked about the side effects of the Covid-19 vaccination and said: “I mean those who have strokes after the vaccinations. This is a very common side…
On March 30, 2021, ZEIT online claimed More hospitalizations of children with depression. Already before Covid 19 the number of young patients with depression increased by 24 percent in 2019. This claim turns out to be mostly true. The article addresses the issue of depression in children and adolescents. The author says that even before…
On 2 October 2021, Conner Rousseau (Vooruit) said in an interview that Belgium is the country that gives the largest amount of money to polluting diesel. Is this statement true? And maybe even more important: how and why does Belgium spend money on this fuel? After doing research and interviewing experts we can say that…
On 5 October 2021, British broadcaster and former politician Nigel Farage made a statement about wind energy in September 2021. During the show “FOX Business” on the broadcaster FOX he said that “in September wind energy only produced 2% of the energy needs”. This statement is mostly true. Nigel Farage is a British broadcaster and…
The lobby organization Initiative for Social Market Economy (INSM) published nine facts about the EU on their website. One of them is “One third of EU exports to South Korea are made in Germany”, which seemed to be true. The INSM is financed by employers’ associations and, according to its own statement, acts independently of political parties. As…
According to published research by Chinese scientists, human testicles are a potential target for the coronavirus infection COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The researchers found that the ACE2 receptor, through which this virus enters cells, is highly expressed in the testes.
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.…
A few weeks ago, I came across a strange fake post on a Georgian Facebook page, it looked like this: It was published on November 13, 2019, by a large pro-government Facebook page, Corridor of Shame, which regularly tries to discredit the opposition. In this case, they chose a different target: Myth Detector, a large…
Starting from a rather negative state of mind when it comes to our climate, we chose an article of the Belgian newspaper De Morgen in which our minister of climate Zuhal Demir (N-VA) claims that, despite the general belief, the quality of our Flemish air is improving every year. (Factcheck from 19 December). Because persons…
On the 4th October 2019, the French coast guard intercepted two boats with illegal migrants in the English Channel. As claimed in a statement by the French maritime prefecture of the English Channel and the North Sea, the 31 people were brought ashore. The Coast Guard provided first aid to the refugees, after that they…
The first step in factchecking, finding a claim, can often be the hardest part of the process. But a good claim is often right around the corner. The internet can be an overwhelming source of information when trying to search for a claim. A lot of people make claims that could be checked but those…
EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM), a civilian monitoring mission, which operates in Georgia since 2008, became the target of organized disinformation and discrediting campaign from Kremlin actors. The new wave of the disinformation launched after the occupational regime of South Ossetia detained EU monitors on the ground of “violation of the state border” on October 24.…
According to the Spain’s Supreme Court decree of 14 October, 2019 12 Catalonian politicians were sentenced to imprisonment and fines for initiating the anticonstitutional referendum on independence of Catalonia from Spain, which was held on the 1st of October, 2017.
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.
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
