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EUfactcheck 2.0

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, hosted by EJTA member Hogeschool Utrecht, the Netherlands. The next year EJTA member Universitat Autonoma Barcelona in Spain offered the EUfactcheck Lab on ‘Climate Change’. In 2026 the topic is Press Freedom. In the first week of May students from 7 EJTA schools meet at Jade University in Wilhelmshaven.

EUfactcheck, an initiative of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) fights mis- and disinformation about policies and topics in Europe. Journalism students from all over Europe factcheck claims and statements made by politicians and others public figures, and rate them as true or false. Our focus is to give correct information and context to the reader.

Latest fact-checks

Apr62019

True: “UK removes words ‘European Union’ from British passports”

Fact-check, TrueBy South Ural State University, RU April 6, 2019

Russian news website Life.ru reported that Britain began issueing passports without the words “European Union” on the cover. This claim turns out to be true.

Apr42019

Mostly true: “The UK will put 3.500 troops on standby and add around 3.000 customs agents to the borders”

Fact-check, Mostly trueBy Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, BE April 4, 2019

“Adding 3.000 customs agents, did the British people ask for this? To add 3.500 soldiers at the borders? No, they didn’t!” On the 19th of January, Marie Arena, a Belgian Socialist MEP, presented some claims about military and customs changes in the post-Brexit UK.

Apr32019

Mostly false: “The Dutch have become considerably richer because of the euro, Belgians have become poorer”

Fact-check, Mostly falseBy Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, BE April 3, 2019

That is what the Belgian daily newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ reported on February 25th . The article is based on a study from the German think tank CEP (Centre for European Policy) in which they researched whether the inhabitants of 8 Euro countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) have…

Mar282019

Mostly true: “Decline in insect populations is a big environmental risk that should be studied more, also in Finland.”

Fact-check, Mostly trueBy Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, FI March 28, 2019

On 12 February 2019 the Finnish Member of Parliament and candidate in the European elections, Ville Niinistö, tweeted that decline in insect populations form a large environmental risk. An additional tweet linked to an article published by the Finnish national broadcasting company YLE concerning the subject. Niinistö also claimed that the presumed decline should be…

Mar272019

Mostly true: “An active Croatian judge can participate in the upcoming European Elections”

Fact-check, Mostly trueBy University of Zagreb, HR March 27, 2019

In a television interview one Croatian Commercial Court judge Mislav Kolakušić announced his plans to stand as a candidate in the upcoming European Elections. The statement raised the question whether Kolakušić, being an active judge, has the right to do so. We examined national and EU laws and regulations on political participation of judges which…

Mar262019

Mostly false: “While countries all over the world are switching to green energy, Belgium stays behind. Already, our energy bill is the third most expensive of Europe”

Fact-check, Mostly falseBy Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, BE March 26, 2019

The political party Groen (the Flemish green party) claims that Belgium is way behind when it comes to green energy. They also say our energy bill is ranked the third most expensive in Europe. Groen mentions this claim on both Facebook and in an article on their website. The party repeats the claim multiple times,…

Media monitor – Uri Geller statements interpreted incorrectly

Fact-check, FalseBy Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR March 26, 2019

On Friday 22/03/2019, at 8.20 p.m., the famous performer Uri Geller posted on his official Facebook page a text, entitled “An open letter to Theresa May”. In this Facebook post, Uri Geller, urges Theresa May to prevent Brexit. He points out that the majority of the English citizens are not in favor of Brexit and…

Mar222019

Mostly true: „Between 25.000 to 30.000 lobbyists“ are working in Brussels

Fact-check, Mostly trueBy University of Applied Sciences for Mgmt and Comm Vienna, AT March 22, 2019

In an article on the Viennese online news portal, www.vienna.at, Julia Herr, Austrian Social Democratic Party candidate for the European parliament election, was recently quoted, that there were supposedly „between 25.000 to 30.000 lobbyists“ working in Brussels. According to the article, Herr had made this claim on March 5th, 2019 during a discussion on the…

Mar212019

Mostly true: “Optimism is May’s duty”

Fact-check, Mostly trueBy Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, BE March 21, 2019

At the end of February, British Prime Minister Theresa May posted a video on her Twitter profile containing a number of statements. She talked about increased employment, increased wages and reduced national debt. Research has shown that this is mostly true. “We have more people at work than ever before.” A first thing Theresa May…

Mar192019

False: “The increased homophobia in The Netherlands is caused by uncontrolled immigration and open borders”

Fact-check, FalseBy Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, NL March 19, 2019

On March the 4th Dutch leader of the right-wing Forum for Democracy Thierry Baudet reacted to a statement by liberal politician Rob Jetten about homophobia in The Netherlands. Baudet stated on Twitter: ,,Jetten’s anger about the increased homophobia in The Netherlands is justified, but he doesn’t see the causes: the uncontrolled immigration and the…

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

EUfactcheck 2.0

Latest fact-checks

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The EUFACTCHECK project

Our history