In March 2021 students from 18 EJTA-schools start fact checking with fresh energy and new inspiration. With renewed formats and more cross-national collaboration projects we hope to surprise you and keep our critical public alert on pan-European topics.
On the 20th of May, Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian Far Right party “The league”, rejected the proposal for a post-Covid EU grant-based recovery plan, outlined by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and unveiled in a surprising press conference on the 18th of May. A statement issued on…
Bob Van Hee, professor emeritus in medical history of the University of Antwerp made a statement in an interview on the website of Flemish public broadcaster VRT that made some people frown: ‘History seems to be repeating itself: in the Middle Ages, the Plague also entered Europe via Italy, just as COVID-19’. The claim turns…
On 13 February 2020, Santiago Abascal (leader of far-right wing political party in Spain, VOX) claimed in an interview in the Spanish public TV broadcaster (RTVE) that almost 70% of gang rapes in Spain are committed by foreigners. This claim is false.
News website euronews.com published a story about microchips in Sweden. Last update was introduced on 15th of May 2020. Journalist Pascale Davies wrote: “Thousands of people in Sweden are inserting tiny microchips under their skin”. The claim turns out to be true. Microchips implanted into one’s body are supposed to make daily life convenient. They…
Monique Boutrand, a French central administration officer and expert on ageing issues, states in an article in Le Monde that letting retired people stay in their own homes will protect them better against future pandemics than when they live in retirement homes. This claim is uncheckable.
Famous Croatian singer Tony Cetinski expressed his fear of vaccinating and chipping by claiming it is becoming mandatory and going as far as to predict that the future COVID-19 vaccine will be a disguise for injecting people with microchips. This happened on Facebook and Instagram and soon became the “talk of the town” across Croatian…
The Belgian tabloid newspaper Het Nieuwsblad published on 22 April 2020 an article with the title ‘Our motivation to comply with corona measures is visibly: how can we keep it up?’. In the article, the journalist Tom Le Bacq gives rates about how many people are supporting the measures of the lock down.
On February 2, 2020, new rules for obtaining a Schengen visa came into force. This was reported by the Russian online edition of RT on February 2, 2020. The claim is true.
“We have tripled the testing capacity of potential coronavirus patients! If a few days ago we could make 600 tests per day on average, today we can test approximately 1700 patients.” This claim by Romania’s vice prime minister Raluca Turan turns out to be mostly false.
In a tweet dated April 2, Gilbert Collard published a post about the rumour of a French decree, that would authorize euthanasia during the coronavirus period. And to back up his words, he quoted an interview with surgeon Joseph Hardy on Radio Shalom the same day. The doctor was worried about a new drug, Rivotril.
In a Brexit Party rally in April 2019, Nigel Farage claimed according to the Daily Mail: “What we are now fighting for is much, much, bigger than Brexit […] what we are now fighting for is for the survival of the very principle of democracy in this country.” This statement refers to a conceived lack…
With great enthusiasm we started the European Factcheck project this winter. Working together with 19 J-schools in 15 European countries is interesting. Besides that, we underline the bigger aim of this project: teaching students verification skills to become eager journalists to make ‘a better world’. Students don’t always like doing research but when you say…
During the US election campaign in 2016, many false messages were spread on Facebook. Also in Germany the distrust of information in social networks is high: According to a study by the European Commission in February 2018, around 60% of all Germans surveyed do not trust news and information in social media. Facebook responded to…
We discovered the survey YES! due to an article published in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that talked about a project run up by young people for young people. We thought that the idea was innovative, and it was a good way to make young people voices heard and vindicate their claims as well. Results…
The Kremlin is engaged in hybrid warfare in order to strengthen its positions all over the world. To achieve its geopolitical goals, Russian authorities use a mix of different tools, including military, financial, economic, cultural and informational tools. During the last decade, the Kremlin has intensified the use of propaganda and disinformation as a weapon…
Russian network edition «RIA NOVOSTI» reports: Nigel Farage, former leader of the British Independence Party and an ardent supporter of the country’s withdrawal from the EU, officially launched the Brexit Party.
During the last weeks work with EUfactcheck, I’ve dived into statements presented as facts, from politicians trying to convince others for better or worse. I’ve come across statements with no abutment in reality and truthful facts hidden behind questionable agendas. It has completely occupied my everyday life, trying to figure out whether a quickly presented…
The fact-check of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on 10 April:https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-true-huge-crowd-of-3000-supporters-of-the-golden-dawn-party-gathers-for-the-announcement-its-european-parliament-ticket/ concerns a publication that refers to the event of the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn for the announcement of its prospective MEPs. The publication has been presented and analyzed in a misleading way as excessive titles were used that do not correspond to reality and…
The relationship between the EU and Turkey has been turbulent and difficult for many years. There has been a lot of dispute. Throughout the recent debate we came across a Facebook posting of Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Austrian populist right-wing party Freiheitliche Partie Österreichs (FPÖ). In this posting Strache states that the FPÖ demands…
Since the controversial Facebook scandal, which was uncovered at the beginning of 2018, the topic of disinformation on the internet has become the focus of many discussions in the US election campaign. Even before the German federal election in September 2017, there were warnings to be vigilant against possible disinformation campaigns and propaganda incitement. Recently,…
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.
At the EJTA Teachers’ Conference in Dortmund (October 2019) practical details were discussed and a new publication schedule was created for autumn 2019.
By January-February 2019 a manual with guidelines and tips & tricks will be published and on 13-14 February 2020 a second Bootcamp will be organised in Ljubljana, with financial help from the Evens Foundation. This Train the Trainer will be focussing on Central Eastern European countries, but also on new participants that want to publish on the platform.
All the information about this event: nadia.vissers@ap.be
“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.
