Fact-Checking & Verification Lab

Overview

Misinformation peaks exactly when journalism matters most — elections, security crises, public-health scares. Our Fact-Checking & Verification Lab works inside newsrooms to make verification a reflex rather than a rescue operation.

The programme combines intensive three-day bootcamps with monthly desk clinics: we review real stories that made it to air with errors, rebuild the workflow that let them through, and leave behind checklists and claim-tracking sheets that survive staff turnover.

We train on open-source tools — reverse image search, geolocation, archive recovery, metadata inspection — that cost nothing and work on the hardware newsrooms already own.

What participants gain

• A verification workflow: a repeatable, written process from claim intake to correction policy.
• Mastery of open-source investigation tools: reverse image search, geolocation, archive recovery, metadata inspection.
• A claim-tracking habit: every doubtful claim logged, dated and checked — before broadcast, not after.
• A corrections culture: transparent, audience-facing corrections that build trust instead of hiding errors.

What we've achieved

• 15 partner newsrooms across print, radio and digital.
• 120+ journalists trained in verification.
• 200+ claims debunked or pre-bunked during the 2023 election cycle.
• 4 newsroom fact-check desks now running independently with our playbook.

From the field