On April 2 — not coincidentally the day after April Fool’s Day — we’ll celebrate the inaugural International Fact-Checking Day. The initiative is a collaboration by fact-checkers and journalism organizations from around the world, with a goal to enlist the public in the fight against misinformation in all its forms.
- A lesson plan on the basics of fact-checking for high school teachers, currently available in 11 languages. The plan is composed of two main modules that can be taught separately or together. The first part is a reading comprehension exercise to help tease out the distinction between facts and opinions; the second a practical step-by-step debunking exercise of a hoax.
- Six practical “How To” guides for everyone. Find helpful tips to fact-check pesky photos, spot fake news sites and navigate your way past hoax Twitter accounts.
- A map of activities being held around the world to celebrate International Fact-Checking Day.
Alexios Mantzarlis joined Poynter to lead the International Fact-Checking Network in September of 2015. In this capacity he writes about and advocates for fact-checking. He also trains and convenes fact-checkers globally. Mantzarlis previously served as Managing Editor of Pagella Politica and FactCheckEU, respectively Italy’s main political fact-checking website and the EU’s first multilingual crowd-checking project. He has presented fact-checking segments on Italian TV and led seminars on fact-checking around the world.
Before becoming a fact-checker he worked for the United Nations and the Italian Institute for International Political Studies.