CFI pledges new support for the AFCN network
Related project
SA7For four years, CFI has been supporting the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), set up in 2020 by ARIJ (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism) to combat mis- and disinformation in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Since then, the AFCN has become a key and influential player in ensuring transparent and impartial fact-checking in the region, due in particular to the SA7 project, one of the major components of the Qarib programme from February 2021 to March 2024.
The AFCN is currently working to build capacity, develop methodologies, and create tools and resources in Arabic. It brings together more than 250 fact-checkers from 11 Arab countries.
The CFI wanted to continue its support for the SA7 project to consolidate and boost the action taken by the AFCN since its inception. It has therefore awarded a grant to fund the implementation of activities between June 2024 and June 2026, including:
• promoting partnerships between the media and fact-checkers,
• raising public awareness of the importance of fact-checking,
• creating a sustainable business model to provide work opportunities for fact-checkers,
• and developing an educational programme for students on media university courses.
The panel selected five organisations (in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Morocco and Egypt) from among the 19 that applied following a call for entries.
The “I doubt, therefore I am” webinar was attended by 109 participants from 19 countries, 55% of whom were women. The webinar covered how to use the AFCN Chatbot and specifically the Fact-Check Content service, with a live demonstration for each feature. It also included the steps taken by the Chatbot team to check different types of information, efforts to improve public knowledge of fact-checking processes and tools and other Chatbot services that the public can try out for themselves, as well as the role of AI in helping fact-checkers. The webinar was posted on the ARIJ Facebook page and has since been viewed more than 800 times.
The SA7 project has also developed a fact-checking programme in Arabic for journalism faculties. Expert Arwa Kooli (Tunisia), a journalist, researcher and professor at IPSI with a long experience in the field of media studies, and Iyad Abu Alrub (Palestine), an expert and researcher specialising in organisational management and learning environments, drew up the plan for the future programme, based on the collection and analysis of academic and non-academic resources, as well as global best practice in incorporating the subject into university courses.
The ARIJ-AFCN team is currently putting the finishing touches to preparations for the AFCN regional meeting on the fringes of the ARIJ Forum in Amman in December 2024. 25 fact-checkers and media representatives from the AFCN network will be invited to attend.
