May 8 – 10, 2023

The Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) led by ARIJ concluded a “Data Journalism for fact-checkers and media professors” workshop, under the “SA7” project. This project is part of the regional program “Qarib”, which is implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).

The workshop was attended by 19 participants, amongst them journalists, fact-checkers and media professors, from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq. The training was provided by Ethar Al-Azm, Senior coach at ARIJ and a trainer in the field of data journalism. She holds a master’s degree in Journalism and modern media from the Jordan Media Institute.

Al-Azm trained the participants on the basics of data journalism during the workshop, which spanned 3 days, and 4 hours per day. On the first and second days, the training concentrated on the theoretical side and the basic principles in data journalism. The training focused on the third day on the practical side and the skills of using “Excel” in addition to  data scraping and cleaning.

The participants were enthusiastic during the workshop to learn new skills about dealing with data, and expressed their benefit at the end of the training regarding  learning new skills on cleaning data through “Excel”.

AFCN organised last year a data journalism workshop, that aims to enhance the skills of fact-checkers in data verification. 

It is noteworthy that the “Sa7” project aims to promote 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.