With the Irish general election set for November 29th, PA Media has announced the launch of a new fact checking website to support its recently-announced ‘Election Check 24 Ireland’ partnership with The Journal FactCheck, supported by the Google News Initiative.
PA Media says the site aims to tackle mis- and disinformation and contains fact checks for journalists and publishers from both PA and The Journal FactCheck to keep on top of campaign claims. It can be found here.
Ahead of the election, PA Media says the fact checking initiative has already signed up partners including UTV, Dublin Live, Belfast Live, Sunday Business Post, Irish News, and Craol (Community Radio Ireland) who will all receive fact checks for free via PA’s distribution network.
PA Media says with the ever-present threat of mis- and disinformation in the run up to polling day, PA says it will also continue to run free digital verification training sessions for partners via the PA Media Academy, a UK training centre for journalism, digital content, PR/comms and media training. PA Media says journalists at news partners who sign up to the initiative will be provided with the tools and training needed to verify facts as well as identify and flag false information.
Wesley Johnson, head of production, PA Media said: “Launching this site is the next step in offering reliable support for publishers in tackling mis- and disinformation around the election.
“With only a matter of days before Ireland goes to the polls, we’re using our position at the heart of the media industry to help voters access accurate information so they can make informed decisions on election day.”
Susan Daly, managing editor, Journal Media, said, "This partnership between PA and The Journal FactCheck is good news for Irish voters, who will now have even more ways of accessing the facts they need to make informed decisions on November 29th."
Bridgid Nzekwu, managing director, PA Media Academy said, “Since launching our acclaimed Digital Verification courses, we’ve trained hundreds of journalists in these vital skills. The two-hour sessions are taught remotely to fit into busy newsroom schedules and use interactive, time-pressured scenarios to simulate problematic situations and ensure attendees develop the confidence to make sound judgment calls when presented with unverified information.”
PA Media says the project follows the success of its Election Check 24 coalition, also supported by the Google News Initiative, which partnered with news outlets and fact-checkers around the UK’s general election earlier this year.
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