In May 2024 the EUfactcheck programme successfully factchecked the EU elections for the second time. From academic year 2024-205 onwards the EUfactcheck programme will offer two different ‘tracks’ for EJTA member schools to participate.
* Individual schools can still use the EUfactcheck website as a platform to publish their students’ factchecks. This can be done at any convenient moment throughout the year, that fits the curriculum of the study programme. Please contact the EUfactcheck editorial team.
* Each year another EJTA member school will organise an intensive factchecking week, the EUfactcheck Lab, funded by Erasmus short mobility. Other EJTA member schools are welcome to join with up to 6 students and one teacher (Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme). Please contact the EUfactcheck programme manager for more details. In 2024 the EUfactcheck Lab covered the EU elections, in 2025 the topic is ‘Climate Reporting’.
EUfactcheck, an initiative of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) fights mis- and disinformation about European policies and topics. Journalism students from all over Europe factcheck claims and statements made by politicians and others and rate them. Our focus is not to debunk fake news but to give correct information to the reader.
On October 9, 2024, a TV debate aired on the German news channel “Welt” featuring Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht. During the debate, Ms. Wagenknecht claimed that Germany’s defense expenditures had risen from 34 billion euros in 2014 to 90 billion euros in 2024. This statement is true. The two politicians represent two highly controversial parties. Alice Weidel…
On March 03, 2023, the German politician Heidi Reichinnek from the Left Party posted a TikTok claiming, that 80% of working women cannot provide for themselves and a child in the long term. This claim turns out to be mostly true. Reichinneks TikTok contains an excerpt from her speech to the Bundestag, in which she addresses the…
On March 7, 2024 the German news program “Tagesschau” released an article about the current number of asylum applications, revealing a notable decline in first-time applications for asylum in February. This claim is true. The article states that the number of first-time applications for asylum have decreased in comparison to last year. There were 19.494…
On May 3, 2024, German right-wing populist politician Maximilian Krah, who was the AfD’s lead candidate for the 2024 European elections, claimed on Tiktok that the European Central Bank was destroying people’s savings and that, although it was promised that the euro would be as stable as the German Mark, it was as stable as…
On April 10, 2024, the Belgian political party ‘Groen’ published an article on their website claiming that 35% of all waste in the European Union originates from the construction sector. The claim turns out to be true. The party published this article following the passage of a new law in the European Parliament. According to…
Maximilian Krah used to be the AfD’s lead candidate for the European elections on June 9th. He initially was elected a year ago at an AfD party conference in Magdeburg. There, he gave “Die Welt” an interview in which he said, “There is a German party that stands for prosperity, for family, for people, and…
They are small, but far from harmless when they end up in the environment. Member of the European Parliament Grace O’Sullivan (The Greens/ EFA) said that 180,000 tonnes of the granules used to produce plastic products get lost in the value chain, harming the biosphere. EUfactcheck discovered that a rather high estimate was chosen from…
In view of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had clear words on the German AfD’s plans to leave the European Union. During a speech at the CDU federal party conference on May 8, 2024, von der Leyen said about the right-wing populist party:…
Jorge Buxadé, one of the leaders and the spokesperson of the extreme right-wing Spanish party Vox, claimed that “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. EUfactcheck looked into this claim and the source it was based on, and found out that…
At the start of the European election campaign the leading politician of the Left Party Carola Rackete gave a speech in Berlin. Among other things she accuses the party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of the following: “The AfD is threatening to set fire to our democracy: They are the arsonists who are planning to deport…
An urgent and almost pressing undertone is given by articles such as “The EU countries in comparison: Who vaccinates faster against Covid-19?” by Euronews or “Covid vaccinations – Which country is on the top?” by ZDF which are issued to the broad German-speaking population. It brings up the question: Is this constant comparison of European…
When you work as a journalist you usually deal with a lot of different topics. If you aren’t one of those specialized reporters who cover specific events of a specific subject, then you are one of those who can talk about everything but nothing at the same time. A friend of ours who studies “International…
We examined three news portals that provide information on whether children and adolescents had more hospitalizations before and during the Corona pandemic. The articles always refer to the same primary source, the german Federal Statistical Office. Now let’s look at how different journalists and online media deal with the topic. A lack of scientific quality…
29/11/2030 To Mr. Farage, Our country is in tatters. A political system that allows self-serving opportunists, like yourself and a certain Boris Johnson, has been the downfall of our country. We are currently cut off from the rest of the world, with no routes to trade. I remember when you exclaimed that by leaving the…
In the Factcheck, we found out that one third of EU exports to South Korea are made in Germany. But what does the agreement between the EU and South Korea really mean for both sides? Who gains, who loses? An assessment by renowned experts. Free Trade versus Protectionism Free trade is the exchange of services and…
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE observes elections within all its member states. The ODIHR recently deployed a mission of four experts to Germany for the federal elections on September 26th. Here’s how different media view the work of the OSCE as well as the integrity of German politics. The…
When we started the research for some claims that could work for us, the amount of possibilities was quite big. We are from two different countries that share almost nothing except for the fact that they are part of the European Union. That means that we could choose within the Spanish political landscape, the Austrian…
Human reproduction is essential for the continuance of the human species. Antinatalism is the absolute rejection of human birth. A large number of antinatalists embrace antinatalism for climate political motives. Is society ready for such drastic measures to provide a future for the living? Interview with: Verena Brunschweiger Leave your comments, thoughts and suggestions in the…
The Lobachevsky University atop (picture taken by Daniel Buylov) and the Jade University of applied sciences (picture taken by Jan Claas Rosebrock) at the bottom – there’s more to the picture than meets the eye. Being neutral and objective is one of THE standards by which qualitative journalism is measured. But truth is an abstract…
Nowadays, 27 countries are members of the European Union, that was founded in 1993. All of them benefit from democracy, security and free movement of products and capital. The aim of this Blogpost is a conceptional experiment, which takes place in Europe – but pictures the countries without the reliable union. All members have left the…
EUFACTCHECK is the fact-checking project of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) that intends to build a sustainable curriculum unit on fact-checking within a European network of Journalism schools.
Through fact-checking European political claims and trying to tackle misinformation, we want our students and our public to grow a deeper insight and interest in democratic processes, both on national and European level.
EUFACTCHECK wishes to motivate fact-based debate in the EU and to stimulate media and information literacy.
After the success of the students’ publications, the participants of EJTA’s fact-checking project EUFACTCHECK decided at the EJTA AGM in Paris (July 2019) to move on with the project and to take new steps in the academic year 2019-2020.
By January-February 2019 a manual with guidelines and tips & tricks was published. In February 2020 a second Bootcamp will be organised in Ljubljana, with financial help from the Evens Foundation. This Train the Trainer focused on Central Eastern European countries, some new schools joined this project.
During corona the EJTA-schools continued to verify claims and publish fact checks. Now we are looking ahead to the 2024 EU elections.
For information about the EUfactcheck project please contact the programme manager: carien.touwen@hu.nl
