The International Fact-Checking Network will unveil its State of the Fact-Checkers Report for 2023 in a webinar that brings into focus the characteristics and makeup of the fact-checking community, and those fact-checkers’ views of the current challenges in promoting information integrity.
The annual survey of fact-checkers solicits opinions and attributes of fact-checking organizations around the world from the previous year. The survey includes the fact-checkers who are signatories to the IFCN’s Code of Principles, which shows they meet universal standards of transparency, independence and methodology, and have undergone a verification process to prove it.
The webinar will take place on Tuesday, April 2, at 9 a.m. Eastern Time in the U.S.; the public is invited for a presentation and discussion followed by a question and answer session. Register here.
Panelists include:
- Angie Drobnic Holan, IFCN director. Angie was previously the longtime editor of PolitiFact and started as a reporter on the team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009.
- Enock Nyariki, IFCN’s community and impact manager. He directed this year’s State of the Fact-Checkers survey and prepared its report. He was previously the Kenya-based managing editor of PesaCheck, where he helped launch fact-checking operations in nine African countries.
- Govindraj Ethiraj, founder of Factchecker.in and BOOM in India. A longtime business journalist, Ethiraj is also the editor of the recently launched India-based business website The Core. He is also the founder of the data journalism initiative IndiaSpend.org and worked with Bloomberg TV India, CNBC TV18 and the Economic Times.
- Peter Cunliffe-Jones, founder of Africa Check, and now a misinformation researcher, based at the University of Westminster in London. He has advised fact-checking projects around the world, including in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He was a leading voice in the creation of the IFCN’s Code of Principles.
Holan, Ethiraj and Cunliffe-Jones were all present at the founding meeting of the International Fact-Checking Network in London in 2014 and were named to the inaugural IFCN advisory board. Peter and Govind continue to serve; Angie left the board to become IFCN director in 2023.
“This year’s State of the Fact-Checkers Report will be our most robust yet,” said Holan. “We increased outreach to our community so we could achieve the most current insights on how fact-checkers have grown, how they see the challenges they face, and what opportunities they seek in the future. In a year of elections around the world and a rising tide of misinformation, these insights will provide crucial guidance for how fact-checkers wish to grow and thrive.”
The State of the Fact-Checkers Report was first launched in 2018 and has subsequently been published every year since. See reports 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The report for 2023 will be published shortly before the webinar begins; a link will be provided to attendees for ready access.
