ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 31, 2022) – The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the nonprofit Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalistic excellence, has entered a yearlong partnership with Google News Initiative to support the growing fact-checking community and reduce the harm of global misinformation.
“It is proving more important than ever for people to access accurate information, and sort facts from fiction in their everyday lives,” said Matt Cooke, Head of Google News Lab. “As part of our ongoing support at the Google News Initiative, we’re hoping this partnership with the IFCN will scale their efforts to a worldwide audience.”
The alliance aims to significantly increase fact-checkers’ capacity to deepen their commitment to truth and transparency, scale their efforts, navigate challenges, and spark meaningful public discourse.
“The world needs fact-checking more than ever before. This partnership with Google News Initiative is a timely contribution to the efforts of the global fact-checking community,” said Baybars Örsek, director of the IFCN and international programming at Poynter. “We are committed to supporting fact-checkers around the world with our resources and this partnership will be an instrumental part of those efforts.”
The partnership will serve more than 2,000 fact-checkers from 60 different countries, including those from more than 130 fact-checking organizations that adhere to the IFCN’s Code of Principles. This document promotes higher standards of transparency and nonpartisanship amongst IFCN verified signatories such as The Associated Press (U.S.), Boom (India), Pravda (Poland), Africa Check (South Africa), Chequeado (Argentina), and VoxUkraine (Ukraine).
In the next 12 months, the IFCN will host six fact-checking workshops to promote higher standards for transparency and accountability in journalism through its Code of Principles and best practices among the fact-checking community.
New fact-checking organizations will also be paired with mentors among the network’s verified signatories in surrounding regions and subject-matter experts like Poynter’s world-class faculty to develop skills in fact-checking, media ethics, leadership, media literacy and business sustainability.
“Our goal is to work with these new and existing fact-checking organizations to encourage regional collaboration, capacity building, scalability and sustainability of fact-checking in this ever-increasing environment of mis- and disinformation,” said Örsek.
Fact-checkers will continue to have free access to a software tools bank with social monitoring, verification and visualization technology.
Support from Google News Initiative also strengthens the impact of existing IFCN-led initiatives such as International Fact-Checking Day, an annual event that recognizes the role of facts and fact-checkers in society, and Global Fact, the world’s largest and most impactful fact-checking summit scheduled for June 22-25 in Oslo, Norway.
To learn more about the IFCN, visit poynter.org/ifcn.
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Tina Dyakon
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The Poynter Institute
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About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media, and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at newsrooms, conferences, and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum, with hundreds of interactive courses and tens of thousands of registered international users. The Institute’s website produces 24-hour coverage about media, ethics, technology, and the business of news. Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people, first-time voters, and senior citizens. The world’s top journalists and media innovators rely on Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians, and broadcasters. This work builds public awareness about journalism, media, the U.S. First Amendment, and discourse that serves democracy and the public good. Learn more at poynter.org.
