Science Feedback Trains Arab Journalists on Verifying Climate Information for AFCN’s ‘Dalil’ Project
On 6 July 2022, the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), held the second webinar of its ‘Dalil’ project, funded by the European Union. The session, titled ‘How Do We Verify Climate-Related Information?’, was presented by the Science Feedback team.
The two-hour webinar drew more than 150 participants from across the Arab world via Zoom, with an additional 600 views on the recording shared on Facebook.
The training was led by Emmanuel Vincent, founder and director of Science Feedback, and Katie Valentine, the organization’s climate and science editor, and moderated by Hoda Othman, a member of ARIJ’s editorial board.
Vincent and Valentine opened by explaining the basics of climate change and climate science, and how experts investigate its causes and impacts. They then walked participants through how climate mis- and disinformation spreads online, using real examples, before covering the methodologies and tools journalists and fact-checkers can use to counter it.
Participants said the training gave them tools they could use immediately. Iman Almasdar, a participant from Palestine, said she came away with the methodologies used to verify climate-related claims, an understanding of which sources to draw on, and a clearer sense of why checking climate content on social media matters. Sanaa Bouajila, from Tunisia, said the webinar taught her how to verify information related to the environment and climate more broadly.
A recording of the webinar is available for those who missed the live session.
The ‘Dalil’ project, run by AFCN and ARIJ, aims to increase the use of accurate news and information in seven countries across the Middle East and North Africa: Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen.
