EUfactcheck in 2024-2025

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.

Latest fact-checks

FALSE: “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”

Jorge Buxadé, one of the leaders and the spokesperson of the extreme right-wing Spanish party Vox, claimed that “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. EUfactcheck looked into this claim and the source it was based on, and found out that…

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Uncheckable: “The AfD are the arsonists who are planning to deport our neighbors”

At the start of the European election campaign the leading politician of the Left Party Carola Rackete gave a speech in Berlin. Among other things she accuses the party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of the following: “The AfD is threatening to set fire to our democracy: They are the arsonists who are planning to deport…

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mostly false

Mostly False: Great Britain deports illegal immigrants to their home country

At the start of the 2024 European election campaign, German politician Marc Jongen is running for the right-wing populist party AfD. In his campaign speech, he said that the illegal entry of migrants must be stopped in Germany and that migrants who have already entered the country must be returned to their home countries. He…

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True (but requires context): Finland faces the highest costs under EU’s environmental restoration law relative to its economy

Kai Mykkänen, Minister of Climate and the Environment (The National Coalition Party – EPP) claimed that Finland voted against the European nature restoration law because of its excessive costs: “According to the Commission’s impact assessment, the costs are the highest in the EU for Finland in relation to the size of its economy.” The claim…

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TRUE: “80% of European agricultural funding goes to just 20% of companies”

80% of European agricultural funding goes to just 20% of companies. But does three quarters effectively go to only a fifth of companies? EUfactcheck found out that these figures were indeed studied a few years ago. The claim turned out to be correct. On 9 February, Vooruit (Flemish social democrats) politician Bruno Tobback shared a…

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MOSTLY TRUE : “30 million Europeans live with a rare disease”

Belgian MEP Frédérique Ries (Renew Europe) claimed in the plenary meeting of April 10th 2024, that 30 million European citizens suffer from a rare disease. She made that claim in the context of the biggest pharmaceutical reform Renew Europe puts its shoulder under. Do 30 million Europeans really have a rare disease? According a study…

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mostly false

Mostly false: “Trans is a dangerous trend – Gender-affirming surgeries in Germany have increased from 120 in 2005 to 2.598 in 2021”

In the documentary “Trans is a Trend: How an Ideology is Changing Our Country”, published on the German news website NIUS.de, authors Judith Sevinc Basad and Jan A. Karon claim that gender-affirming surgeries in Germany have increased from 120 in 2005 to 2.598 in 2021. They also argue that being trans is a dangerous trend…

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False: There is a direct connection between COVID vaccines and excess mortality

In the “Europawahlprogramm 2024” (European Election Program 2024) of the German political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), alleged dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines are highlighted. The program claims a direct connection between these vaccines and excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. This claim turns out to be false. “Due to (…) an alarming excess mortality,…

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False: “In the next 25 years 1 billion African immigrants will come to Europe”

During a broadcast of the Flemish current affairs program “De Zevende Dag”, Klaas Slootmans, a member of the far-right party Vlaams Belang, claimed that in the next 25 years one billion African immigrants will come to (Western) Europe. After checking the facts, it turns out that Slootmans’ statement is false. In the episode of De…

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Mostly True: 35 parties will take part in the European Parliament elections in Germany

On March 30, 2024, LB.ua reported that the German Bundestag has approved the participation of 35 political parties in the upcoming European Parliament elections. Among the approved parties are the controversial environmental group “The Last Generation”. Lesser-known parties such as the Party of Reason and the Party of Traditional Medical Research for Rejuvenation will also…

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Latest blog posts

Media Analysis: Croatia – a guardian of EU borders or a ruthless violator of human rights?

Introduction and context In a recent factcheck article, our colleagues from the Media University Stuttgart checked the claim of Mr. Nikola Milina, the head of Croatian police, who said that the violent pushbacks at the Croatian-Bosnian border published in October 2021 were an “individual event” and that he didn’t want such incident to “affect the…

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The intra-European competition for vaccination progress

An urgent and almost pressing undertone is given by articles such as “The EU countries in comparison: Who vaccinates faster against Covid-19?” by Euronews or “Covid vaccinations – Which country is on the top?” by ZDF which are issued to the broad German-speaking population. It brings up the question: Is this constant comparison of European…

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Media Analysis: What media tell us about depression in children and adolescents

We examined three news portals that provide information on whether children and adolescents had more hospitalizations before and during the Corona pandemic. The articles always refer to the same primary source, the german Federal Statistical Office. Now let’s look at how different journalists and online media deal with the topic. A lack of scientific quality…

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Blog: Is Germany a beneficiary of the KOREU free trade agreement?

In the Factcheck, we found out that one third of EU exports to South Korea are made in Germany. But what does the agreement between the EU and South Korea really mean for both sides? Who gains, who loses? An assessment by renowned experts. Free Trade versus Protectionism Free trade is the exchange of services and…

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Media Analysis: The OSCE-Observation of the German parliamentary elections and its democracy’s stability through the lens of German and Russian Media

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE observes elections within all its member states. The ODIHR recently deployed a mission of four experts to Germany for the federal elections on September 26th. Here’s how different media view the work of the OSCE as well as the integrity of German politics. The…

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European Journalism Training Association EJTA
Council of Europe
evens foundation
Group photo EUFACTCHECK 240119

The EUFACTCHECK project

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.

Our history

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 

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