In May 2024 the EUfactcheck programme successfully factchecked the EU elections for the second time. From academic year 2024-205 onwards the EUfactcheck programme will offer two different ‘tracks’ for EJTA member schools to participate.
* Individual schools can still use the EUfactcheck website as a platform to publish their students’ factchecks. This can be done at any convenient moment throughout the year, that fits the curriculum of the study programme. Please contact the EUfactcheck editorial team.
* Each year another EJTA member school will organise an intensive factchecking week, the EUfactcheck Lab, funded by Erasmus short mobility. Other EJTA member schools are welcome to join with up to 6 students and one teacher (Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme). Please contact the EUfactcheck programme manager for more details. In 2024 the EUfactcheck Lab covered the EU elections, in 2025 the topic is ‘Climate Reporting’.
EUfactcheck, an initiative of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) fights mis- and disinformation about European policies and topics. Journalism students from all over Europe factcheck claims and statements made by politicians and others and rate them. Our focus is not to debunk fake news but to give correct information to the reader.
On 16 March 2021, BBC Online reported on negative health effects linked to noise pollution. The article claims that living near an airport or motorway has been shown to have a negative impact on our health. This is also confirmed by scientists who point to the effects of noise on humans. This claim is true.…
“The corona crisis has reduced migration flows worldwide. That has implications for prosperity. In rich countries, economic growth without immigration risks being undermined.” This claim from the German statistical bureau Destatis, published in Belgian newspaper De Standaard from 10 February 2021, turns out to be mostly true. Immigration is a global phenomenon with Europe as…
At the Climate Summit organised by the United States in April, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the United Kingdom is “halfway to net-zero”. It is correct that the UK is halfway on their net-zero policy. However, the claim is only mostly true, as research shows the scenario is not as optimistic as the…
In April, a prominent Croatian news outlet called Jutarnji list published an article stating that members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), including nine Croats, receive a daily allowance of 290 euros per day for online meetings, and these per diems are intended to reimburse travel expenses. The statement that Jutarnji list reports…
The German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) criticizes the refugee policy by Angela Merkel in Germany. In a press release from April 2019, Chairman Alexander Gauland claimed: Migrants drive up the crime rate in Germany. Especially now with the federal election upcoming, the AfD still holds this position – even though the refugee crisis is…
On 5thMarch 2021, Tagesschau.de reported on the energy supply in Germany and stated wind as the most important source of electricity. They claim that in 2020 for the first time more electric power had been generated with wind energy than with coal and that renewable energy achieves a record high. The claim turns out to…
“The US and China have been the ones that have been innovators, and leading in investment into AI”, EU law professor Anu Bradford said. In April, she made the statement in an article discussing the European Union’s approach to artificial intelligence in the newspaper Financial Times. Research shows her claim is mostly true. In April,…
Azerbaijani MP Agil Abbas stated in his interview to Baku TV: “Some world powers play politics and argue that virus came out of bats. How come nothing came out of bats in last thousand years but only yesterday?” he mentioned. The claim turns out to be false. WHO-convened global study about origins of SARS-Cov-2, researches…
On the 4th of February 2021, Europêche released a statement on their website that claimed 99% of the landings from EU-managed stocks were fished sustainably. Research shows the claim is mostly false. Europêche is an organization representing vessels and fishermen from ten European countries. They promote fluent communication between the European institutions and the fishing…
Last month, Börje Ekhom claimed that “Europe is too slow with the roll-out of 5G” in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. The CEO of the Swedish networking and telecommunications company Ericsson expects that Europe will need two years to reach the current level of China. Research shows Europe is slower in rolling…
On the 14th of March, the British Parliament decided they don’t want a no-deal. The House of Commons voted by 312 to 308 to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances.
Italy’s intelligence services warn of increasing violence against immigrants
The number of attacks on migrants has increased in Italy. Matteo Salvini is accused of this. Also, he is accused in connections with Russia.
News is everywhere, in these times everybody is a journalist. You can start your own newsblog or pick up your phone and make a video about a popular subject. Therefore it is hard for traditional media to compete with these free sources. But are they just as correct as our beloved newspaper? News is there…
The second report on the EU Fact Check concerns a publication on the risk of cyber-attacks, ahead of the European elections next May. We have chosen this subject because it is a matter of broader interest and involves state governments, especially in Europe, giants of digital services, public opinion, and the media. It is of…
It isn’t enough for us to feel that we are EU citizens. We also need some concrete ways to get our voices heard. We were born after 1995 when Finland joined the EU, so we have lived our whole lives as EU citizens. It doesn’t always feel like that because decision-making feels very distant. In…
Analysing the speech of Cristian Escribano and Sergio Santamaría at the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament was not easy, so we divided the task in different stages. First of all, we decided to split the group, in order to make things easier. The first part of the group took care of the context…
Take a look behind the scenes of our article on the place of nutrition in exposure to endocrine disruptors. From the choice of the subject to the publication of the article, through the meetings with the experts, we tell you the main stages of our reflection in drawings.
We, as journalism students, love the fact that we can fact-check news and claims. A good article or news item stands or falls by its fact-check. But if you want to do a good check, it is quite difficult to get involved with the right people and the right reports. Certainly for a journalism student.…
The news came unexpected in mid-January. The 83-year-old entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime minister of Italy, will run for a seat in the European parliament at the general elections due to be held on May 26th. It’s the last coup de theatre from a man who his adversaries have considered many times as politically…
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
