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.
Zuhal Demir, minister of Environment for the Flemish government and affiliated to the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, states in the newspaper ‘De Morgen’ that the air quality in Flanders has evolved positively over the years. She claims that in response to an open letter in Flemish newspaper ‘De Standaard’ from journalist Nick Meynen, in which…
Dagmar Belakowitsch, parliament delegate to the National Council of Austria, published a press release on November 28th, 2019, stating that the Iraqi Minister of Defence had faked his Swedish citizenship and claimed social benefits under a false name. This allegation is correct. In a press release Dagmar Belakowitch, Freedom Party delegate to the Austrian parliament,…
On the 13th October 2019 Spain’s Supreme Court has imposed sentences on 12 politicians, who are accused of holding the illegal referendum on the independence of Catalonia, Russian news agency RT reports. The claims turns out to be true.
At the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Croatian centre-right party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) Women’s Association, Croatian President Mrs Kolinda Grabar Kitarović said that all successful Croatian women are both conservative and members of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The claim turns out to be false. The Croatian Democratic Union is currently the…
The Cigarette Manufacturers of Belgium and Luxembourg (CIMABEL) falsely claim that there is no scientific study that proves neutral packaging of cigarettes makes people smoke less. As of January 1st 2020 the packaging of cigarettes will be neutral in Belgium. The country will be the fifth in Europe that follows the trend of making its…
On August 9th, 2019 the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) stated the following on Facebook: “The latest figures from the United Nations show that by now one in three immigrants and asylum seekers does not reach Italy via Lampedusa or Sicily, but rather comfortably on a yacht on the eastern route.” It is true that…
During the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award speech, President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović stated that she was born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. This statement provoked numerousreactions from the media and a storm of reactions on social networks.Kitarović was born in Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia until 1991. Althoughcommunist-run, Yugoslavia was independent from Eastern Bloc…
President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen claimed the gender pay gap is at 16% in Europe. Von der Leyen tweeted this on November 4th and promised to close this gap. The claim turns out to be true. The 4th November of 2019 is Equal Pay Day. In honour of Equal Pay Day,…
On the 22nd of October an article appeared in De Standaard, a Belgian newspaper. It quoted the Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon (N-VA) who stated that Brexit already brought 42 companies and 2,000 jobs to Flanders, Belgium. Where did they get that specific number? Jambon made that comment in the Flemish Parliament earlier that day in…
The information that the Queen has signed the bill was published by the Russian news agency Interfax on September 9, 2019. It says that Queen Elizabeth II has approved the document that postpones the country’s exit from the European Union if there is no agreement with Brussels by October 31, 2019, which allows to go…
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
