Organization: Libération - CheckNews
Applicant: Pauline Moullot
Assessor: Laurent Bigot
Edits made by the organization after this assessment
IFCN Staff wrote:
If you go to this page http://www.liberation.fr/checknews,100893 , now hosted directly on Libération's website, you can see the "mode d'emploi" section and you just have to click on it to get there.
From the assessor:
The “mode d’emploi” provides more information to readers. For further renewals, I would recommend the team to keep working on an easier and friendlier way to present the team members to the public, regardless, it seems logical to validate the request for the renewal of Libération.
Conclusion and recommendations
Laurent Bigot wrote:
According to my second assessment, I think Libération / Désintox and CheckNews continues to be a reliable fact-checking partner. They are compliant with most of the principles enacted by the IFCN.
There a big difference between the first and the second assessment : Libération keeps fact-checking claims thru videos posted on its Desintox section ; but, since September 2017, its written fact-checks are available exclusively on a specific website called CheckNews. CheckNews is made to verify and explain claims submitted by readers : it works like a search engine ; readers can search for the questions we already answered, or ask a new questions.
Checknews also publishes the fact-checks Libération thanks to the facebook partnership.
The only points of uncertainty are that Désintox and CheckNews don’t list their journalists’ biographies and don’t explain their fact-checking methodology publicly and clearly…
Criterions 4, 5 and 6 are partially compliant.
After the first assessment, Liberation publishes an article to explain its methodology. The team should do the same in a specific and more detailed page on both Desintox and CheckNews websites.
Laurent Bigot recommended Accept with edits
Section 1: Organization
Criterion 1a
Proof of registration
Evidence required: Please provide evidence that the signatory is a legally-registered organization set up exclusively for the purpose of fact-checking or the distinct fact-checking project of a recognized media house or research institution.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Libération, a legally registered French media outlet. The legal registration is mentioned here: http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/
We publish fact-checks both in the Désintox and CheckNews sections of Libération.
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
The legally registered French media outlet Libération has got two Désintox is distinct fact-checking sections: an historical one called Désintox (http://www.liberation.fr/desintox,99721) and a new one called CheckNews (https://liberation.checknews.fr/).
All the evidence of the Libération’s legal registration are presented in the “Mentions légales” through its ISSN and CPPAP numbers, here: http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/
done_all 1a marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 1b
Archive
Evidence required: Insert a link to the archive of fact checks published in the previous three months. If you do not collect all fact checks in one place, please explain how the fact-checking is conducted by your organization.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Désintox publishes reports regularly about the accuracy of claims. It does so with approximately one fact-check daily over the previous three months. All its work is published here: http://www.liberation.fr/desintox,99721
done_all 1b marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Section 2: Nonpartisanship and Fairness
Criterion 2a
Body of work sample
Evidence required: Please share links to ten fact checks that better represent the scope and consistency of your fact-checking. Provide a short explanation of how your organization strives to maintain coherent standards across fact checks.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Désintox used to fact-check mostly politicians. We launched CheckNews in September where we fact-check what readers ask us to check, and where we publish the fact-checks we do with the Facebook partnership.
https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/45461/bernard-arnault-gagne-t-il-vraiment-800e-par-seconde
We also fact-check in videos:http://www.liberation.fr/desintox/2018/01/31/la-suede-se-prepare-t-elle-a-une-guerre-contre-la-russie_1626388
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Désintox and CheckNews’ journalists selected 10 fact-checks to prove scope and consistency of their work:
https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/45461/bernard-arnault-gagne-t-il-vraiment-800e-par-seconde
These examples show that Désintox and CheckNews cover a variety of speakers (Nathalie Loiseau, Emmanuel Macron, Gérard Collomb, Bernard Arnaud, etc.) and that its fact-checks are non-partisan work.
The Désintox and CheckNews team also explains that its work is quite different of it was since the beginning of Désintox, in 2008:
« Libération’s Désintox has evolved over the past year: we continue to fact-check claims thru Désintox with our videos, but our written section is now called CheckNews. We launched this specific website in September. Our aim is to verify and explain claims when readers ask us to. CheckNews works like a search engine: readers can search for the questions we already answered, or ask a new questions.
We also publish the factchecks we do thanks to the Facebook partnership on this website. We always specify when the article is published because the article was flagged in Facebook. Our methodology did change a little because we now respond to readers’ questions and do not listen necessarily to all the radio and tv interviews politicians give every morning. But the checking methodology is still the same: we review claims, and explain how we checked a question and why we are arriving to this conclusion. For us it was an answer to a critic that is often done to fact-checkers and that we could understand : as fact-checkers, we are sometimes accused of having a political agenda hidden behind our fact-checks. This critic isn't necessarily true, and isn't about the quality of the verifictions but is about journalists having politcal bias. Nonetheless our efforts, we were accused of having political bias and always checking the same politicians (the far right for instance). The critic isn’t new. As we’ve seen with Trump’s election, it is today worldwide. CheckNews was a way of responding to these critics. And the response is positive as we have many tweets congratulating us for being objective, and questions from libération readers, and people who identified as coming from the right and the left. Responding to questions people ask us is a way of responding with more transparency to criterion 2a. »
We can notice that a lot of CheckNews’ fact-checks are about the Libération’s work itself, because that reflects the questions the readers ask to the team… Some fact-checks are about links flagged on Facebook (all of them have the indication: “repéré sur Facebook”).
done_all 2a marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 2b
Nonpartisanship policy
Evidence required: Please share evidence of your policy preventing staff from direct involvement in political parties and advocacy organizations. Please also indicate the policy your organization has as a whole regarding advocacy and supporting political candidates.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
All the journalists working for Libération must respect the paper's chart of ethics. You can find it here. http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#charte-ethique
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
To explain its policies to preserve its non-partisan way of fact-checking claims, Désintox and CheckNews team mention the Libération code of ethics: :
« All the journalists working for Libération must respect the paper's chart of ethics. You can find it here. http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#charte-ethique »
This document mentions that Libération is a free, vigilant and independent daily newspaper. It evokes several rules that guaranty the credibility of its work:
“The continuity of these principles detailed in this code of ethics is indispensable to guarantee the editorial independence and the quality of credible and rigorous news that make the value of Liberation’s publications.” (…)
“Liberation opposes skepticism to both official speeches and personal inclination, that is essential to the respect of facts.” (…)
“A "good" information is necessarily contradictory.” (…)
“The CIE (Editorial independence committee) ensures the application of this code of ethics.” (…)
“The association SJPL (Journalists and staff society), composed of Libération journalists holding a press card and other employees of Libération, is responsible for the editorial independence defense and ethical rules compliance in the company’s newsrooms.” (…)
The team also explains at criterion 2a:
« Nonetheless our efforts, we were accused of having political bias and always checking the same politicians (the far right for instance). The critic isn’t new. As we’ve seen with Trump’s election, it is today worldwide. CheckNews was a way of responding to these critics. »
done_all 2b marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Section 3: Transparency of Sources
Criterion 3a
Sources Policy
Please share a brief and public explanation (500 words max) of how sources are provided in enough detail that readers could replicate the fact check. If you have a public policy on how you find and use sources for your fact-checking, it should be shared here.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
All our sources are provided in our fact-checks. You can find them by hyperlinks. As you can see in the fact-checks above, we write our fact-checks in a pedagogical way and explain how we work, where we looked and who we talked to.
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Most of the time, sources are provided in Désintox and CheckNews’s fact-checks. According to our assessment, the Libération’s fact-checkers give most of the time details to the readers, so that they are able to replicate the fact-check by their own means.
Fact-checks are written in a pedagogical way and the team try to explain its work.
Besides, Libération has a specific policy on sources, which is mentioned here: : http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#charte-ethique
It evokes its “scrupulous respect for professional ethics in all areas, from the sources verification to the accuracy of the quotes and the explicit mention of the origins of (its) information”. It also explains that “all information is rigorously sourced” and that “the use of anonymous sources is an exception, not a rule”.
done_all 3a marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Section 4: Transparency of Funding & Organization
Criterion 4a
Funding Sources
Evidence required: Please link to the section where you publicly list your sources of funding (including, if they exist, any rules around which types of funding you do or don't accept), or a statement on ownership if you are the branch of an established media organization or research institution.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
We are part of Libération, so our funding depends on Libération. All the information on our ownership is here: http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#mentions-legales Asked by our readers about the Facebook partnership, we also respond openly. For instance, here: http://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2018/01/08/est-il-vrai-que-facebook-remunere-le-monde-et-liberation-pour-aider-a-trier-les-fake-news_1620972
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Désintox and CheckNews are the fact-checking sections of a media named Libération. And the ownership of Libération is detailed here: http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#mentions-legales
This page explains that the main shareholder is SFR Presse.
The team also explains the way it works with Facebook here :
done_all 4a marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 4b
Staff
Evidence required: Please link to the section detailing all authors and key actors behind your fact-checking project with their biographies. You can also list the name and bios of the members of the editorial board, pool of experts, advisory board, etc. if your organization has those.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
All our articles are signed. Either with our full names or with our initials. In our CheckNews twitter account we explain we are the team of Désintox. https://twitter.com/CheckNewsfr And on the Désintox twitter account you can find links to all the team member twitter accounts with biographies:https://twitter.com/LibeDesintox
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
There’s no section detailing authors behind the project and their biographies on the website.
And there’s no way to contact Cedric Mathiot, the journalist who leads the Desintox and CheckNews team…
But all the articles are signed by their author and all the authors are easy to find on Twitter:
there’s a general Twitter account for Désintox (https://twitter.com/LibeDesintox ); another one for CheckNews (https://twitter.com/CheckNewsfr ); and others Twitter accounts for Pauline Moullot (https://twitter.com/paulinemoullot ), fabien Leboucq (https://twitter.com/LeboucqF ), Felis Helixis (https://twitter.com/Helixis_Felis ), Robin Andraca (https://twitter.com/RobinAndraca ), et Jacques Pezet (https://twitter.com/Jacques_Pezet ), where it’s possible to find succinct biographies.
done 4b marked as Partially compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 4c
Contact
Evidence required: Please link to the section where readers can get in touch with the organization.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/new?term= They can also contact us via our Facebook and twitter pages where we respond to them. And via this form on libération: http://www.liberation.fr/contacts/
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
It’s quite easy for readers to contact Désintox and Check News : they can use the Twitter accounts mentioned above or the Désintox and the CheckNews Facebook pages (https://www.facebook.com/DesintoxLiberation/ and https://www.facebook.com/CheckNewsFr/) ; and they can use the Libération pages called “contact” (http://www.liberation.fr/contacts/ ) and “mentions légales” (http://www.liberation.fr/cgvu/#mentions-legales ), which explains that to join a journalist, you just have to send him an e-mail on the model : first name initial.lastname@liberation.fr
Readers can also use a specific form to ask questions to the team : https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/new?term=
And there’s an email address at the bottom of each CheckNews website page…
done_all 4c marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Section 5: Transparency of Methodology
Criterion 5a
Detailed Methodology
Evidence required: Please link to a section or article detailing the steps you follow for your fact-checking work.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
There’s no accessible place on Desintox website, on CheckNews website or on their social media’s accounts where the methodology is publicly and clearly explained.
The team explain that there’s an article ont Desintox website :
http://www.liberation.fr/desintox/2017/03/27/desintox-qui-sommes-nous_1558052
But there’s no way to find it : it was published in March 2017 and there’s no link on the websites to find it anymore...
The Désintox team exposes its methodology to the IFCN like that:
“Our methodology did change a little because we now respond to readers’ questions and do not listen necessarily to all the radio and tv interviews politicians give every morning. But the checking methodology is still the same: we review claims, and explain how we checked a question and why we are arriving to this conclusion. (…) Responding to questions people ask us is a way of responding with more transparency to criterion 2a (non partisanship and fairness). It also responds to criterion 5b (transparency of methodology). Thanks to the form where people ask us questions, we have a direct relationship with readers. We also opened this year an email adress (checknews@libe.fr).”
done 5a marked as Partially compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 5b
Claim submissions
Evidence required: Please link to the page or process through which readers can submit claims to fact-check. If you do not allow this, please briefly explain why.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
They can contact us via Twitter and Facebook. But mostly ask us questions on our CheckNews page: https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/new?term=
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
There’s no dedicated page to invite readers to submit claims to fact-check on Desintox website. But there’s one on CheckNews website. The team also explains : “They can contact us via Twitter and Facebook. But mostly ask us questions on our CheckNews page: https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/new?term=
done 5b marked as Partially compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Section 6: Open & Honest Corrections Policy
Criterion 6a
Corrections policy
Evidence required: Please link to the page with your policy to address corrections. If it is not public, please share your organization's handbook.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
http://www.liberation.fr/desintox/2017/03/27/desintox-qui-sommes-nous_1558052 We publicly add an "edit" everytime we correct or update an article, explaining when we did the edit and what it is.
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
The staff explains its corrections policy like that: “We publicly add an "edit" everytime we correct or update an article, explaining when we did the edit and what it is. »
But this corrections policy is not really public, because we can, only find it here : http://www.liberation.fr/desintox/2017/03/27/desintox-qui-sommes-nous_1558052
This article was published in March 2017 and there’s no link on the websites to fin dit anymore...
done_all 6a marked as Fully compliant by Laurent Bigot.
Criterion 6b
Examples of corrections
Evidence required: Please provide two examples of a correction made, or correction requests handled, in the past year.
Libération - CheckNews
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
For instance we updated this article https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/42181/mediapart-soutient-il-la-remise-en-liberte-de-tariq-ramadan-comme-l-a-affirme-la-ministre-nathalie-loiseau-sur-france-inter and even responded to another question where we explained the update https://liberation.checknews.fr/question/42601/est-il-vrai-que-la-mise-en-avant-sur-la-page-de-mediapart-de-contributions-du-club-si-elle-nengage-pas-le-journal-est-neanmoins-une-decision-editoriale-vous-ne-le-dites-pas-dans-votre-check-concernant-tarik-ramadan
Laurent Bigot Assessor
08-Mar-2018 (6 years ago) Updated: 6 years ago
It seems that Désintox and CheckNews have implemented their corrections policy (“mise à jour” – update) in two recent fact-checks: