Last updated on 9 July 2020
Who better than AFP, the venerable Agence France Presse, to chase lies and half-truths that thrive on the web and social networks. Fact-checking, three times rather than one, has always been one of the core rules of the press agency. Verified information is at the heart of the work of AFP senior journalists and most major international news agencies.
AFP therefore naturally launched AFP Fcurrent two years ago. A blog dedicated to fact-checking that complements online resources to uncover fake news presented here a few weeks ago.
AFP Factual, the rumours to the test of the facts
On the agency’s fact-checking website, you will find information and images that you must have heard of. At the rate of about one article per day, AFP FONU journalists screen the information they see circulating on the internet, whether it is disseminated via social networks, press articles, videos, or even statements.
Facts only facts. The verdict is displayed on the front page of each article in the form of an entry in capital letters: FALSE – EXAGERATED – TROMPER – EXPLICATIONS … In each article, the AFP journalist sets out in detail the basics of the initial information and describes how he or she went about verifying it. Exciting.
A B-A Ba of fact-checking
AFP Factual allows you to discover how AFP journalists work. Enough to arouse vocations among your students. In addition to daily publications in chronological order or by using a search engine at the top left of the site, the AFP website offers a fact-checking guide which alone is worth a visit. Here you will find an overview of the techniques that the AFP Factual team uses on a daily basis in its work.
Basic principles, tools, … methods are essential, although we would have liked the agency to go further and show even more pedagogy.
AFP Factual explains on its website that it freely chooses the content on which it investigates ‘on the basis of several criteria, in particular their editorial interest, their virality, and the place they occupy in the public debate’. You can, however, write to the editor of the AFP to ask them to verify a piece of information.
An interesting resource to be added to the file every day more essential of media and information literacy.
Link: AFP’s fact-checking blog
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