In January 2019, First Draft started building CrossCheck Europe, the first cross-border collaborative network of its kind.
We trained over 350 journalists at four summits, building the relationships and skills that would later underpin their collaboration. We refined the workflow, methods and standards, and began onboarding Partners onto the CrossCheck platform in May 2019.
CrossCheck Europe’s purpose is to bring together newsrooms, academics and civil society to detect and investigate stories that are gaining prominence across the continent. It is a cross-border response to a cross-border problem.
Rather than purely fact-checking political statements or debunking viral falsehoods, CrossCheck Europe aims to expose coordinated disinformation campaigns and the associated tactics of amplification that are being repeated across countries.
As the cross-border collaboration begins to take shape, First Draft is sending out its Partner Briefing to Partner organisations, a newsletter covering instances of disputed information and the latest research.
We are also continuing to welcome new Partners into the initiative as we expand the network across the continent, adding to the 50+ Partners covering 19 countries. Partners will begin publishing their CrossChecked investigations for public viewing later this year.
