Six months after the introduction of Project SA7, a highly positive report

AFCN has now forged a strong reputation as an influential player in terms of clear, impartial fact-checking across the region thanks to the SA7 project. This was a main component of the Qarib programme for which CFI renewed support, in the form of a 2-year subsidy for ARIJ, granted in July 2024.
AFCN’s achievements in the first six months of running the SA7 project initiatives with CFI backing are highly positive.

ARIJ held its 17th Annual Forum from 6 to 8 December 2024 in Jordan on the theme “Journalism Unbound”. The event garnered over 2,300 online enrolments from over 60 countries, with 700 participants attending in person. 
Over 130 speakers (50% of whom were women) participated in 35 sessions.
The CFI subsidy helped 23 participants from 13 countries to attend the Forum. These attendees represented six Arabic-language fact-checking organisations/platforms, six free-lance journalists, two non-Arabic fact-checking organisations and seven media organisations. An excellent opportunity to meet up, collaborate and get to know each other beyond merely professional relations.

The AFCN ‘Marketplace’ aims to rationalise workflow between fact-checkers and media organisations, with 16 fact-checkers from six countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen. Ten media organisations from six countries (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria) use the service to check their work prior to publication.

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In terms of chatbot development, the AFCN fact-checking team worked from July to December 2024 on 878 statements mainly pertaining to the various MENA crises, especially in Palestine and Lebanon, the Sudan conflict and the transition phase in Syria. The Chatbot supervisor also organised eight coaching sessions.

34 fact-checking organisations responded to CFI’s call for applications. The five selected (Tafnied-Egypt, Annir-Libya, Tahqaq-Morocco, The Checker-Iraq, Farek-Syria) were awarded €8,000 in financial support to ensure their viability and reinforce efforts to push back against disinformation across the region by supporting the production of content.

Two experts were entrusted with drawing up an Arabic-language fact-checking course catering to universities and media faculties in the Arab world. They drew up a well-rounded plan to develop this programme, leveraging the collection and analysis of both academic and non-academic resources, as well as global best practices to fold the subject into academic syllabuses.

While in Paris for the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, Rawan Damen, Director General of ARIJ and Saja Mortada, Manager of AFCN, paid a visit to CFI on 12 February 2025 to present the results of the SA7 project. The high point of the meeting was an impressive demonstration of the chatbot in operation.

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