AFCN Gathers Fact-Checkers In-person for the First Time to Discuss their Challenges
December 3, 2022
The Arab Fact-Checkers Network led by ARIJ, held its fourth regional meeting within the “SA7” project – “Qarib” program, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI), with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD).
42 fact-checkers met in-person for the first time in Amman, bringing together 26 fact-checking initiatives/organisations and independent fact-checkers from 12 Arab countries, and was attended by AFCN partners’ representatives.
The meeting commenced with welcoming all attendees, AFCN members and the representatives of AFCN partners, by ARIJ Director General “Rawan Al-Damen“. Damen praised all the efforts put into “creating a promising community cooperating in the fight against disinformation in the region, and creating new opportunities for fact-checkers”.
Throughout the meeting, AFCN Manager “Saja Mortada“, highlighted the achievements and summarised the activities of the network in 2022.
The launch of a number of tools were announced during the meeting including: the “Pre-publication Fact-Checking educational material”, the launch of the “AFCN Chatbot”, AFCN Marketplace, and the “Database of Car Accidents in Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon“.
Moreover, an hour was dedicated to discuss with the fact-checkers the challenges faced and how AFCN can support overcoming these challenges in the following year.
AFCN had previously held three regional meetings; the first meeting discussed the network’s code of principles and guidelines, the second meeting, which brought together fact-checking initiatives/organisations with Arab Universities, discussed the importance of cooperation and establishing curriculum of fact-checking in Arab Media faculties, and the third meeting summarised a set of recommendations on the importance of increase cooperation between fact-checking organisations and media organisations, and the necessity of introducing journalists to fact-checking and offering training in this field.
