October 21, 2023
ARIJ’s AFCN, organised a webinar on Oct 21, 2023 under the title “Confronting Disinformation about OnGoing Nakba in Palestine”, with the participation of more than 300 participants via Zoom and 2K+ viewers on Facebook in less than one week, hosting several Palestinian and Arab fact-checking organizations to discuss the methods of dis/misinformation and propaganda used by the Israeli occupation during the recent horrific situation in Gaza in Palestine.
The session was opened and moderated by Saja Mortada, AFCN manager, with a minute of silence for the souls of 18 journalists killed by Israeli occupation, while covering the events in both Gaza in Palestine and southern Lebanon, in addition to more than 4,000 martyrs in Gaza (till Oct 21st, 2023). Mortada also thanked more than 30 Arab fact-checking organisations and more than 250 fact-checkers from 12 different Arab countries who are working day and night on a volunteer basis to support global fact-checking misinformation related to what is happening in Palestine.
Mortada announced during the webinar, the launch of the AFCN international coordination, which is currently composed of more than 50 fact-checking organisations from 30 countries around the world to cross border collaboration to fact-check stories related to the current situation in Palestine. This cooperation includes monitoring, translation, verification, and cross-publication.
The webinar speakers were: Anas Hawari, founder of the Tayqan Palestinian fact-checking initiative, Bakr Abdel Haq, founder and director of the Palestinian Fact-Checking Observatory (Tahaqaq), Dina Ibrahim, director of Akhbar Meter, Fouad Bou Ghader, one of the founders of Sawab fact-checking initiative, and Haider Al-Moussawi, a Iraqi journalist and fact-checker from the Checker News organization.
For two hours, the speakers reviewed the most important mis/disinformation they have fact-checked recently, how Palestinian content is facing restrictions and censorship on social media platforms, in addition to the difficulties they face during monitoring, verification, and publication. They also spoke about the benefits of the support provided by the AFCN to their efforts. They also discussed how the cooperation between Arab and international fact-checking organizations has significantly contributed to raising the level of monitoring and verification and reducing challenges.
The speakers discussed the most important challenges at the regional level, each according to their geographical region. In Egypt, the rumours focused on international aid through the Rafah crossing and prominent figures. In Lebanon, on fabricated news, in Iraq, on phishing rumours and fake accounts claiming to provide assistance and support. And in Palestine, on a torrent of Israeli occupation propaganda, misleading clips, and images. They also discussed how emotions have affected the speed of the spread of mis/disinformation.
It is worth mentioning that this webinar is part of the SA7 project from the Qarib program, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD). SA7 project aims to enhance the best practices, methodologies and tools for fact-checking in the Arab region, specifically in 4 countries facing political, economic and security challenges where the public confidence is declining in the media: Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq.