“How do you benefit from ARIJ’s AFCN services?” Webinar

October 25, 2023 

On Oct 25, 2023, ARIJ organised a webinar under the title “How do you benefit from Arab Fact-checkers Network services”, with the participation of more than 60 participants via Zoom and 800+ viewers on Facebook in less than one week. This webinar is one of a series of webinars to be held prior to ARIJ 16th annual forum in 2023 in Amman-Jordan, under the title “Cross Border Collaboration in a Fragmented World”.

Ghassan Al-Shahabi, fact-checker and investigative coach  with ARIJ, moderated the session by welcoming the speakers of the meeting, AFCN team members: Saja Mortada, AFCN manager, Dr. Arwa Kooli, researcher with AFCN and associate professor at the Institute of Journalism and News Sciences of Tunisia, Rasha Faek, AFCN consultant, Fatima Bani Ahmad, a project officer and fact-checker with AFCN, Ahmad Khorwat, AFCN community manager and Baraa Maany also a project officer and fact-checker with AFCN.

For one and a half hours, speakers reviewed the most important projects and services provided by AFCN, the mission, the code of principles of the AFCN and the four main pillars for it: empowerment, networking, innovation and protection.

Mortada reviewed the network-led efforts during Gaza crisis in October 2023 at the local and international level, and how the AFCN community responded to it, while Al Kooli focused on the importance of studying information disorder in the Arab region and how it helps in understanding the spread of mis/disinformation and how to address it. In that matter, AFCN consultant mentioned the efforts to develop educational materials to help learning fact-checking, the importance of AFCN members’ adherence to the principles and the importance of the annual evaluation process for its members.

In the second part of the meeting, Bani Ahmad discussed the importance of pre-publication fact-checking and AFCN efforts to develop journalists and Arab media organizations’ capabilities in this field, and Khorwat talked about how AFCN built its community since 2020 and how it has so far evolved to become more collaborative and powerful.

At the end of the webinar, Al Maany shared his experience as a fact-checker with AFCN, including attending workshops, clinics, diploma, and exchanging experiences with other Arab fact-checkers from different countries.

ARIJ’s AFCN is a grassroots network that works towards fostering transparent and impartial fact-checking in the Arab region.