ARIJ’s AFCN held its final 2025 Regional Meeting In-Person in Amman
December 5, 2025
The Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN) from ARIJ, held its fourth regional in person meeting for 2025 in Amman, Jordan as part of the 18th ARIJ Annual Forum. The meeting aimed to review AFCN’s milestones over the past five years and define the strategic priorities for the next five years (2026-2030).
Moderated by ARIJ’s Director General, Rawan Damen, the meeting brought together more than 50 fact-checkers from 26 fact-checking organizations/initiatives across 12 Arab countries, along with experts in the field, to shape the direction of the coming phase.
Regional meeting attendees discussed the roadmap for AFCN’’s operations and future direction towards 2030. These priorities include:
-Investigating disinformation campaigns and issues, moving beyond mere verification of claims.
-Organizational and strategic development for organizations within the community.
-Achieving broader impact through public engagement and confronting purveyors of disinformation.
-Enhancing cooperation among Network members and expanding international presence.
Within the meeting’s agenda, AFCN announced the release of the “Fact-Check Quality Assurance Booklet” (in Arabic). This comprehensive and detailed guide aims to standardize quality criteria and elevate the level of reports issued by fact-checking organizations in the Arab region. It encourages continuous development, especially in the face of misinformation challenges and the rise of AI, where quality remains fundamental to sustaining work and enhancing public trust. The meeting also highlighted the importance of ARIJ’s Methodology for Investigating Disinformation Campaigns, a specialized methodology designed to empower journalists and fact-checkers to track and expose organized disinformation campaigns.
Fact-checkers shared the requirements and challenges they face in their work, and stressed specific Arabic language advanced technical tools and specialized training priorities in 2026.
The interventions emphasized the importance of specialization to enhance efficiency and avoid duplication of efforts and resource waste, focusing on financial sustainability mechanisms for organizations, and ensuring the continuous alignment of Arab working mechanisms with international fact-checking standards.
Participants also underscored the vital importance of these meetings, stressing that they represent a crucial opportunity to share experiences and coordinate efforts among the various fact-checking organizations within the Network community.
Asia Anwar from the Iraqi platform “The Checker” stated, “The meetings of the AFCN community always instill a feeling that the pursuit of truth and the creation of meaning is achievable… Having a community that believes in the value of voice and truth is the constant motivation that keeps us resilient despite all challenges.”
For his part, Nawras Diab from the Palestinian platform Kashif added, “This meeting contributed to reordering priorities… It gave me a sense that our impact multiplies when we meet and think together, transforming our shared ideas into tangible steps that make a difference. We are not facing challenges alone, but as a cohesive team.”
It is worth noting that ARIJ’s AFCN regional meetings are milestones bringing together Arab fact-checkers since 2022. The number of these meetings has now reached sixteen regional gatherings held to discuss the key needs and challenges facing the field of fact-checking in the region.
