May 11, 2023
The Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) led by ARIJ, held on May 17, its sixth regional meeting and the second in 2023, within the “SA7” project of “Qarib” program which implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI), with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD).
The meeting was moderated by Saja Mortada, AFCN manager, welcoming members of the Network and the speaker of the meeting, Rasha Faek, AFCN trainer and consultant, to discuss updating the Network’s Code of Principles and announcing the new complaint policy.
Participants from 20 fact-checking organisations/initiatives, from 8 Arab countries, heard from Rasha Faek, about how the performance of the fact-checking organisations/initiatives that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the AFCN for more than 6 months has been evaluated regarding their commitment to the AFCN code of principles, which have been agreed upon and signed by several fact-checking organisations/initiatives in the Arab world.
Many fact-checkers emphasised the importance of this step, and requested to be developed in the future. In the same context, AFCN manager Saja Mortada confirmed that the network had helped to develop the fact-checking methodologies of several organisations and is ready to assist other organisations.
The second part of the meeting discussed the complaint policy of the network, stressing by Rasha that the policy is to promote a professional environment between fact-checking organisations against any violation of the code of principles.
At the end of the session, Saja Mortada presented the AFCN marketplace, which links media organisations with fact-checkers. She also presented the Arabic-language chatbot, which links the public and the fact-checkers in the Arab world.
It’s worth mentioning that this is the second regional meeting for AFCN in 2023 and its sixth under SA7 project. The network held its first meeting last March and brought together fact-checking organizations/initiatives in the Arab world with the international expert in fact-checking Peter Cunliffe Jones.
The 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.