16th January 2017
By Tom Law

EJN meets with Turkey’s leading fact-checking group

The EJN met with journalists from the Turkish fact-checking and online news verification initiative teyit.org on February 20th in London as part of the organisation’s study visit to the UK. Teyit.org operates as an online reference portal in Turkish and English scanning, selecting, checking, analysing, archiving and publishing information on questionable content particularly during situations of crisis when there is a massive spread of unverified/false information and biased content.

EJN Communications Director Tom Law meeting the Teyit.org team at the Frontline Club in London, February 2017.

Teyit.org aims to provide unbiased, accurate and verified news and information in crisis situations, both in English and Turkish and therefore contributed to preventing the spread of hoax news in time of crisis. They also create awareness regarding the use of verified content in the long-term to counter the false information that often rapidly spreads in Turkey on social media whether from mainstream media reporting or from rumours originating in social media resulting in low standards of journalism and fact-checking.

Teyit.org aims to address this and improve the quality of reporting in the Turkish media, by training editors and journalists in fact-checking methodologies and by collaborating with other fact-checking and independent media outlets in order to share experience and improve methodologies. The study visits will be an integral part of their project plan, which emphasises collaboration with other fact-checking outlets and learning from international experience.