CIS, Asian, Latin American Countries Seek Fact-Checking Cooperation

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Asia and Latin America are showing strong interest in cooperation on fact-checking, Vladimir Tabak, president of the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), told TASS ahead of the Dialogue about Fakes 4.0 forum.

"There are actually many countries [willing to cooperate]. We are now working closely to integrate with the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, OANA, chaired by Andrey Kondrashov from TASS. That includes Asia, the Pacific, Latin American countries and CIS countries. Some show greater interest, others less. We are as open as possible to cooperation," Tabak said.

"We have an educational section on our website with more than 170 articles and videos covering various aspects of fact-checking, media literacy and OSINT [open-source intelligence] tools, available to users. Our approach is quite open. We do not aspire to ideological leadership; rather, we want to bring together people interested in this field. Some countries therefore show greater interest, and individual representatives of certain countries are very active. But I would say that interest will grow as the subject becomes increasingly relevant," he added.

The Global Fact-Checking Network brings together experts and fact-checking organizations worldwide. The association was founded by the TASS news agency, the nonprofit organization Dialogue Regions and the New Media Workshop to combat disinformation. More than 125 journalists from 55 countries already collaborate with GFCN on fact-checking.

The international Dialogue about Fakes 4.0 forum will take place on September 22 at the Russia National Center in Moscow. TASS is the event’s strategic partner.