ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Jan. 13, 2021) — The Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has partnered with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) to establish a global teaching program serving more than 20 countries. This capacity-building effort will offer resources to newsrooms and non-profit organizations including remote training sessions and mentorship between IFCN verified signatories and beneficiaries from countries including Tunisia, Chile, Sri Lanka, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Fiji, Pakistan and Myanmar.
The initial goal is to provide established and aspiring newsrooms with fact-checking skills and connect them with the existing verified signatories through mentorship and monitoring to assure the beneficiaries will be compliant to IFCN’s Code of Principles.
The Poynter Institute, home to the IFCN, is known for its excellence in journalism instruction with expertise in ethics, leadership, media literacy and storytelling. Through this initiative, the IFCN will bridge its existing fact-checking experts and training programs with Poynter’s renowned journalism curriculum, training materials and faculty members.
Trainees will be provided with instruction to build skill sets in:
- Business development
- Newsroom management
- Journalism ethics
- Video and broadcast skills
- Audience building
- Accountability and transparency
- Fact-checking techniques
Training sessions will be presented in three stages of pre-recorded materials, self-directed courses and live discussions, followed by an ongoing mentorship and monitoring process offered by the verified signatories of IFCN’s Code of Principles. Instruction will begin in March.
“Our objective is to help the growing fact-checking community in some underserved countries and regions with essential know-how on building a fact-checking unit and providing the public with accurate and reliable information amid this global pandemic and the anticipated debates around vaccination efforts. We have seen that fact-checkers have been instrumental in helping consumers and disseminators of information during times of uncertainty,” said Baybars Orsek, director of the IFCN.
“We are delighted to partner with the Poynter Institute and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN),” said Anthony Borden, founder and executive director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR). “The world is experiencing a crisis of disinformation. The need for factual and fair reporting is more important than ever. Citizens need to be informed, officials need to be questioned, human stories need to be told. IWPR works around the world to counter disinformation, and we are proud to join forces with IFCN in this vital effort.”
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at newsrooms, conferences and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum, with hundreds of interactive courses and tens of thousands of registered international users. The Institute’s website produces 24-hour coverage about media, ethics, technology and the business of news. Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people, first-time voters and senior citizens. The world’s top journalists and media innovators rely on Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcasters. This work builds public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and discourse that serves democracy and the public good.
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Tina Dyakon
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tdyakon@poynter.org