February-March 2023

The Arab Fact-checkers Network (AFCN) led by ARIJ, supported 8 fact checking organisations/initiatives from 4 Arab countries, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, to produce 120 post-publication fact-checking pieces. This comes under the SA7 project, which is a part of the regional program “Qarib”, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).

During February and March, 8 fact checking organisations from the four countries produced and published 120 post-publication fact-checking pieces, as each organisation produced 15 pieces according to their fact-checking methodology, after a year of being trained by AFCN.

Organisations participated:

1. The Checker  – Iraq
2. Kashif – Palestine
3. Tahaqqaq – Palestine
4. Tayqan – Palestine
5. Saheh Khabarak – Jordan
6. SAWAB – Lebanon
7. Chayyek – Lebanon and Jordan
8. Tahaqqaq – Lebanon

The pieces produced in February dealt with false and misleading news that coincided with the catastrophic earthquakes in Syria and Turkey and the subsequent rumours. Local news dominated most of the produced fact-checking pieces, in a variety of political, economic and social topics.

It is worth mentioning that the “SA7” project aims to promote the best practices, methodologies, and tools for fact-checking in the Arab region, particularly in four countries facing political, economic, and security challenges and where public trust in the media is diminishing, which are; Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq.