ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Sept. 25, 2023) – The world’s fact-checkers will convene in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital city of Sarajevo for the 11th GlobalFact summit in June 2024 and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for GlobalFact 12 in the summer of 2025.
Presented by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, GlobalFact is the world’s largest and most impactful fact-checking summit. This annual gathering features multiple days of interactive learning sessions and networking events for fact-checkers to exchange best practices and establish collaborations that build business operations, audiences and impact.
Each day of the summit includes keynote presentations with experts in journalism, academia, misinformation and technology. Discussions are centered on the universal challenges fact-checkers face today, such as upholding information integrity with artificial intelligence, tracking online disinformation campaigns and protecting democracy in 2024 with more than 40 high-profile elections.
Numerous industry-leading projects and fact-checking advancements have originated through past GlobalFacts, including International Fact-Checking Day, the IFCN’s Code of Principles and partnerships with major tech companies.
Since 2014, more than 3,700 people have attended GlobalFact in cities around the world including London, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Rome, Cape Town, Oslo and Seoul. While the in-person experience went online during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the past two years have been full hybrid events. Those who cannot physically attend the 2024 conference in Sarajevo will be invited to sign up for online viewing, live and on-demand, of select main stage sessions. The format for 2025 will be determined next fall.
The dates for GlobalFact 11 will be finalized in the coming weeks. Registration and speaker submissions will open in early 2024.
Sarajevo, 2024
The IFCN will present the 2024 conference in partnership with Zašto ne, a Sarajevo-based civil society organization working to establish political accountability mechanisms, strengthen civic activism and safeguard new media and technologies.
“Fact-checkers in Bosnia and the rest of the Balkans were founding members of the International Fact-Checking Network and have been tireless in their efforts to bring accurate, high-quality information to their communities,” said IFCN director Angie Drobnic Holan in a Monday announcement to signatories of the IFCN Code of Principles. “We are excited to bring fact-checkers around the world together to experience the beauty and history of Sarajevo.”
“We are incredibly excited to partner with IFCN in hosting GlobalFact in Sarajevo in 2024,” said Tijana Cvjetićanin, head of fact-checking at Zašto ne. “Our region has been at the forefront of fighting disinformation for years, and we are thrilled that our global community will meet here, at its very heart. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to share the spirit of solidarity and cooperation that we have nurtured through our regional network.”
Rio de Janeiro, 2025
The 2025 conference will be organized in collaboration with Brazilian fact-checking organizations Aos Fatos, known for producing technology-driven tools and award-winning investigations for battling disinformation; Estadão Verifica, whose team debunks suspicious content that goes viral on social media and WhatsApp; Agência Lupa, an award-winning site that led innovative fact-checking of the coronavirus pandemic and strategies for media literacy; and UOL Confere, the fact-checking and verification arm of Brazil’s biggest content, technology and digital services company.
“Brazil’s fact-checkers continue to do innovative, important work despite a politically charged environment and other challenges,” Holan said. “Fact-checking in Latin America is growing rapidly, and we look forward to inviting fact-checkers worldwide to Rio de Janeiro, with its forested mountains and stunning beaches.”
“In a polarized world where misinformation thrives, Brazilian fact-checkers eagerly anticipate the arrival of GlobalFact in 2025 on our shores. In a country often targeted by the waves of mis- and disinformation, we stand at the forefront of this battle, armed not only with determination but with innovation,” said Natália Leal, CEO at Lupa, representing all Brazilian fact-checkers. “The increasing number of fact-checking initiatives in Brazil serves as a testament to our resilience, and having GlobalFact here will be a celebration, but also a new commitment with forging new paths and solutions to tackle the misinformation.”
Media Contact:
Angie Drobnic Holan
Director, International Fact-Checking Network
aholan@poynter.org
+1-727-410-1770
About the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter was launched in 2015 to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation.
We enable fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. The IFCN promotes the excellence of fact-checking to the verified signatories to the IFCN Code of Principles — more than 140 organizations from 65 countries covering over 80 languages — through advocacy, training and global events.
Our team monitors trends in the fact-checking field to offer resources to fact-checkers, contribute to public discourse and provide support for new projects and initiatives that advance accountability in journalism. In 2021, the IFCN was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Learn more at poynter.org/ifcn.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About Zašto ne
Zašto ne is a Sarajevo-based organization that started as a youth peace initiative more than 20 years ago. The mission of the organization expanded over the years, encompassing various aspects of building a healthy democracy and sustainable peace. The organization hosts several operations focused on fact-checking, information literacy, political accountability and civic participation. Fact-checking has been one of the staples of Zašto ne’s work, starting with Istinomjer — one of the oldest fact-checking projects in the world, that has been monitoring and checking the accuracy of statements of public officials and fulfillment of pre-elections promises in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2010. Another flagship of the organization is Raskrinkavanje, started in 2017, that is one of the most prominent anti-disinformation initiatives in the region and beyond. Zašto ne is one of the founding members of SEE Check, the regional fact-checking network in Southeast Europe.
About Aos Fatos
Aos Fatos is a tech-driven, award-winning Brazilian journalistic organization that exposes the lies of politicians, the disinformation campaigns of the powerful and the influence of technology companies. Through innovative strategies and AI tools to combat disinformation, its multi-disciplinary team has gained worldwide recognition throughout its eight years of history fact-checking and investigating Brazilian authorities and public policies. Aos Fatos is, among many other international recognitions, a Gabriel García Márquez Award winner, and a Sigma and a Online Journalism Award finalist.
About Estadão Verifica
Estadão Verifica is the fact-checking team of O Estado de São Paulo, one of the largest newspapers in Brazil. Since 2018 the team has fought misinformation in social media, prioritizing content that can cause harm to groups or individuals, and to democracy. Estadão Verifica is part of Comprova, a collaborative, nonprofit initiative that brings together journalists from 41 Brazilian media outlets to investigate and verify falsehoods about public policies, health and election campaigns.
About Agência Lupa
Lupa is a Brazilian hub of solutions to tackle misinformation using fact-checking and media literacy. It plays a crucial role in the Brazilian media landscape by providing citizens with reliable information and holding public figures accountable for their statements. In addition, Lupa is involved in educational initiatives to promote media literacy and critical thinking skills among the public. It was recognized as the best trust initiative in the Americas in 2023 and won almost 10 data journalism awards with “No epicentro,” a digital application launched in 2020 to bring awareness about the coronavirus pandemic. Lupa was founded in 2015, is based in Rio de Janeiro and counts more than 30 collaborators all over the country.
About UOL Confere
UOL Confere is the fact-checking and verification arm of UOL, one of the largest news and content portals in Brazil. Since 2017, it has focused on checks regarding politics, economics and public health. Their coverage addresses topics of social importance and reach, usually information that has gone viral or that impacts social life in Brazil.
