On January 23, during an Italian talk show, Luigi Di Maio (deputy prime minister and minister of Labour and Social Policies) declared that, according to a report by Istituto Cattaneo, the cabinet led by Giuseppe Conte is the most popular in Europe. Actually, this is not precise. The report Lo strano caso del consenso al…
The Dutch newspaper Trouw published an article on February 1st about import tariffs of 100 percent on Serbian products like milk. According to Trouw, this is problematic, since the imposed tariffs are – according to the EU – a direct violation of the regional Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). Our findings suggest this is…
In an article posted the 27th of November 2018 the Belgian newspaper De Tijd claimed that the health damages by road traffic related air pollution costs the European Union around 62 billion euros a year. This claim turned out to be mostly true. “From a study done by European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) it turns…
The Natracare brand of organic skin protection claims on its website that conventional menstrual pads are made of “90% plastic”. An unverifiable figure, but likely. “Did you know conventional menstrual pads are made up of 90% plastic materials?!” The brand Natracare, a pioneer in organic sanitary pads, uses this astounding figure to appeal to…
During elections, some candidates buy advertisements on Facebook to increase the visibility of their posts. Some see this as necessary to gain the upper hand in an election. In an election period, do wealthy candidates have an advantage thanks to Facebook? “The way Facebook works is simple: the more money you spend, the wider your…
The signing of the Global Compact for Migration was greeted with many comments. Damien Rieu, an activist with the Génération Identitaire movement, “estimates” that France already spends 4.5 billion euros on immigration. He’s basing his figures on Nadine Morano statement.
Swedish nationalist party the Swedish Democrats tweeted via their EU account on January 4th 2019, claiming that “5000 people have received asylum in Sweden due to newly introduced law on upper secondary education”. This is mostly true.
In a tweet, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini claimed on December 16, 2018: “Repatriates (of migrants into Italy): + 28% since I’m in the government. I am sorry that the opposition and some misinformed journalist even falsify the numbers and the reality.” His claim turns out to be mostly false.
When the Netherlands announced a national ban on ivory trade on December 17th 2018, Dutch D66 European Parliament member Gerben Jan Gerbrandy shared an article from the D66’s website. In this article, Gerbrandy is quoted saying: Almost 50.000 elephants are being poached a year.” But reliable data shows this number is way too high.
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.
We will publish fact-checks and blog posts to test our common methodology during the European elections.
The project gathers fact-checks from more than 150 students and staff from more than 20 EJTA 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.
“What is this politician saying??” Did you read or hear a politician or public figure make a questionable claim? Send us an email with the claim and maybe we will fact-check it.
Please include the source (url and date) where you found the claim.
