Maharat-news About Us Section (https://www.maharat-news.com/about-us) that shows as well in the footer of the home page, includes that Maharat-news is incubated by Maharat Foundation, with a hyperlink to Maharat Foundation's website (http://www.maharatfoundation.org/who-we-are), where it is explicitly mentioned that Maharat Foundation is a non governmental organization (number of registration 226/2006). This complies with the criteria that Maharat-news Fact-o-meter is within a legally registered organization. (Registration certificate of NGO attached)

The required documents were provided.

1- Maharat-News started its work on fact checking in 2019, particularly after Maharat Foundation organized a conference on Fake news and Media Viability in April 2018. Conversations were initiated with other factchecking platforms hosted in this event including Politifact and Lupas. Maharat-news built on the best practices shared in order to draft a methodology that is relevant to the Lebanese context. The publishing started to be frequent and consistent starting September 2019. Our factchecking initiative emanated from the need for evidence based journalism in Lebanon since mainstream media are affiliated with politicians and business men which leads to biased coverage and lack of accountability. Media Development, Accountability and Media Literacy are core goals in Maharat Foundation strategic work. This was the reason behind launching a fact checking operation with maharat-news incubated by Maharat Foundation.

2- Two full time journalists working as fact checkers, one social media expert, one data analyst, one senior editor, one supervising editor

3- Training journalists on factchecking, Debates, conferences and webinars on Media Viability, Support to independent media platforms in the MENA region through Maharat's Digital Media Viability lab (digitalmediaviability.com), Media Information Literacy Programs, Supporting media faculties to rethink journalism, Advocacy to reform media laws in lebanon.

4- Over the coming year, our aim is to understand the current discourse of political actors in relevance to sectoral reforms that are currently a priority for Lebanon in this transition phase and in relevance to the municipal elections that are anticipated in May 2023. The aim of the monthly factchecking will be to hold politicians  accountable by providing evidence based information challenging their discourses around key issues of accountability.

Required information provided 

We published 38 factchecks in the past 6 months with an average of at least one factcheck a week. (List of factchecks with URLs and dates of publishing attached)

The average since August 2022 is one story per week even though there was a long period during which no stories were published - Decenber 22/ January 23

Most if the stories are of public interest.

Our organization has no relationship whatsoever with the state, politicians or political parties in Lebanon and the MENA. However, we have funding from foreign agencies and we mention explicitly in the About us section in English (http://www.maharatfoundation.org/en/about/who-we-are) and Arabic here http://maharatfoundation.org/who-we-are the below:

Maharat Foundation receives financial support to implement its projects according to its strategic plan from a group of donors especially United Nations development agencies such as UNWomen and UNDP, The EU Delegation in Lebanon and international institutions such as Internews, FPU, OIF, and Deutsche Welle Akademie. However, receiving financial support does not mean that Maharat changes its mission and priorities according to the donors. Donors do not interfere in Maharat's strategy and ways of implementation including editorial content.

Funding is detailed in both Arabic and English.

Editorial Independence is a main prerequisite for the work in our organization. All Maharat’s staff members sign, as an annex to their contracts, a Code of Conduct that includes provisions to prevent and protect against sexual exploitation and abuse in Lebanon as well as to ensure they will not take part in different engagements including Active participation in partisan politics or active affiliation with political groupings and/or armed groups which might compromise their neutrality.

Furthermore our fact-o-meter methodology published on our website ensures that as we factcheck statements not political parties or political figures. We ensure our journalists are not members or supporters of political parties and are trained on our methodology in order to factcheck only statements and not opinions. (https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter) (screenshot attached)

ويعتمد هذا القسم خطا تحريريا محايدا، يقوم بالتحقق من تصاريح المسؤولين ولا يستهدف اشخاصا معينين او احزابا سياسية معينة. تحرص منصتنا على ان لا يكون من بين فريقها التحريري اعضاء او داعمين لاحزاب سياسية. وهي توفر لهم التدريب اللازم على منهجية العمل القائمة على التحقق من الوقائع وليس الأراء. تقوم منهجية التحريرعلى التأكد من الحقائق على مستويات عدة وفق سير العمل المعتمد في غرفة التحرير وكذلك اثناء تحرير الخبر عبر الاعتماد على مصادر متعددة ومتنوعة وموثوقة.

Furthermore the editorial flow of work ensures many levels of factchecking sources and information. In addition Maharat-news editorial policy includes a non partisanship paragraph as below: A clear paragraph is reflected in the about us section of maharat-news: https://www.maharat-news.com/about-us . However it is to note that we only have an arabic version of maharat-news. (screenshot attached)

تسعى مھارات نیوز الى تقدیم الحقائق بعیدا عن ایة انتماءات سیاسیة، حزبیة أو طائفیة حیث یترك الصحافیون العاملون في

.الموقع آرائھم الخاصة جانباً ویعملون بكل تجرد على تحقیق مبادئ الاستقلالیة والشفافیة

من ھذا المنطلق على الصحافیین العاملین في الموقع تجنب التعبیر عن أرائھم السیاسیة علناً وتجنب المشاركة العامة في العمل

.السیاسي

كما علیھم تجنب التعبیر عن الآراء السیاسیة على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي. یمكنھم مشاركة مقالات اواي محتوى صحافي

.آخر، شرط الا یكون المحتوى مؤید أو معارض لشخصیة أو منصبًا سیاسیًا

یمكن للصحافیين المشاركة في الانتخابات كناخبین، لأن ذلك من حق المواطنین في الادلاء بآرائھم على ان تكون عملیة الاقتراع غیر علنیة والا یشاركوا في حملات انتخابیة او في دعم مرشحین سیاسیین معینین

Policy of independence is detailed 

The past months focus was on factchecking political discourses, rumors and information circulating on media and social media on issues of accountability as well as information circulating on media and social media related to public health including Covid, monkeypox and cholera.

The factchecks related to public health are selected mostly by our social media monitoring team looking for rumors around public health. The monitoring team collects public health related information and classifies them into high, low and medium impact. The editorial team selects the high and medium level impact for factchecking. The selection takes into consideration as well the level of engagement and interaction on social media. The journalists use the same standards of evidence for public health related issues by resorting to trusted sources including WHO, CDC, FDA, NIH and other public and governmental sources. In some topics such as oil and gas, we base our factcheck on international experts since the so called local experts are divided and biased depending on their political affiliation.

For all factchecks, the same process is followed including: select the factcheck, define the question we are factchecking, background research, searching for trusted and relevant sources including laws, policies, studies, statistics, calling relevant experts, presenting the facts and editing the article, reach the final rating of the factcheck.

As for the statements of politicians selected below, our team tries to diversify the claims from different political parties. For example in the selected factchecks below there are statements from parliament members from Lebanese forces, Progressive party, Amal movement, independents, minister of telecommunication, minister of public affairs. They represent the diversity of the political representation. The political factchecks are selected based on the current discourse and impact on the public debate in addition to level of outreach of the specific discourse. Most of the factchecks include legal awareness as laws and policies are the main source of verification supported by law experts. In each factcheck we resort to more than one expert with a preference to those from trusted and specialized groups. For example the article on banks restructuring plan and its impact was based on the expertise of Legal Agenda and Aldic.

The rating is based on the main question driving our factcheck and not based on the actors themselves. This gives us a non partisan position through the fact based approach that we use even for rating. This is important in a divided country where we try not to show that we are attacking a politician or taking political sides, we are rather factchecking information that is taking a large part of the public debate.

https://maharat-news.com/monkeypox-variole-vaccines (factchecking information related to monkeypox vaccines for people above 50) Partly True

https://maharat-news.com/covid-19_vaccines_additional_doses (factchecking information related to covid vaccines doses) False

https://maharat-news.com/covid-19_damaging_brain_grey_matter (factchecking information related to damage brain from Covid). True

https://maharat-news.com/ookla-speedtest-4g-lebanon-mobiledata (factchecking statement of minister of telecommunication on internet speed) Partly True

https://maharat-news.com/road_cleaning_ministry_of_public_works (factchecking information that the ministry of public works is the only responsible for cleaning roads) False

https://maharat-news.com/detection_of_oil_assets_through_3d_scanning_before_drilling )Factchecking information on detection of oil assets through 3d scanning before drilling) False

https://maharat-news.com/cholera-litaniriverauthority-litaniriverbasin Factchecking a statement of MP on cholera in Litany river) True

https://maharat-news.com/depositorsmoney-Bankrestructuring-banqueduliban (Factchecking statement of MP on restructuring of banks) True

https://maharat-news.com/the_effectiveness_of_approving_the_2022_budget (factchecking statement of MP on non efficiency of approving the 2022 budget) False

https://maharat-news.com/lebaneseconstitution-lebaneseparliament-presidentialelections (Factchecking a statement by the speaker on the violation of the constitution in the decision for higher quorum for presidential election in parliament) False 

Fact-checking of different claims is done according to the same procedures.

Here is the link for our Methodology that explains how we select claims: https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter

Link provided

To a certain extent. However, this needs to be systematic especially in the Lebanese context.

Claims represent a wide range of political stands although focusing on yhe government. 

Link within the Methodology https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter 

Link provided.

Hyperlinks are including, the process in general is clear

There is a clear attempt to reach primary sources. In stories Maharat didn't receive replies, this is clearly stated.

There is an attempt to use multiple sources in most of stories.

We have marked this criterion as compliant although we believe more efforts should be put in indicating the political inclination of different sources. This is even more important when it comes to Lebanon, a society highly politicised and polarised. 

Fact-o-meter is a fact checking section of maharat-news incubated by Maharat Foundation, a non profit NGO working on the promotion of freedom of expression and media development. Proof of registration attached. 

Proof provided

A link of the statement on maharat-news: https://www.maharat-news.com/about-us 

Link provided and all required information included in the website.

The methodology section published on our website (https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter) includes a paragraph on the factchecking team and the workflow:

It includes the name of the 2 full time journalists working on factometer, their workflow, editorial meeting and editing supervisors.

فريق التحقق من المعلومات

يتألف فريق التحقق من المعلومات من مدير التحرير حسين الشريف، ومن الصحافيين لورا رحال وبلال ياسين ، وهما خريجا كلية الاعلام ، خضعا لدورات تدربيية عدة حول التحقق من المعلومات واستخدام أدوات التحقق المفتوحة.

تقوم المديرة التنفيذية لمؤسسة مهارات رلى مخايل بالاشراف على التحرير

يقوم فريق التحقق في مهارات نيوز برصد المعلومات المتداولة على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي وفي الاعلام وفي بيانات وتصريحات السياسيين، وذلك بهدف مواكبة النقاش العام والاتجاهات بغية اختيار التصاريح التي يمكن التحقق منها وفق المنهجية المعتمدة. ويتم الاتفاق على التصاريح التي سيتم التحقق منها في اجتماع تحرير يومي ترأسه المشرفة على التحرير

Link and information provided.

Roula Mikhael Bio hyperlinked in the methodology part (https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter). Link to her bio: https://www.maharat-news.com/media/3803/رلى-مخايل.pdf 

Link to Hussein Al Sharif Bio https://maharat-news.com/media/4209/bio-of-hussein-al-sharif.pdf

Link provided 

In the methodology section there is a paragraph encouraging users to send us their suggestions for claims they would like to factcheck and an email that they can address the editorial team through:

https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter 

Link provided 

Methodology on the link: https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter 

Link provided

Claims are of public interest 

There is an attempt to state evidence supporting different views 

Same procedures applied

There is an attempt to contact primary sources including officials.

We encourage users to send factcheck on all the platforms that we use including on our website (methodology part) as well as on social media. Our journalists and team receive as well factchecks on their WhatsApp especially when we work on media literacy projects and we use fact-o-meter an example on factchecking. We continued collecting rumors related to public health feeding our data base of rumors from local communities through our local monitors who used social listening techniques and monitoring tools. We did the same during elections, as we partnered with the Lebanese Association for Demoratic Elections LADE and we used their field monitors to collect rumors related to the elections. A series of reports of fact checks were conducted pre and post the elections: 

https://maharatfoundation.org/ParliamentaryElections2022andRumors

https://maharatfoundation.org/sociallisteningreport_elections2022

https://maharatfoundation.org/Election_Verification_Articles

https://maharatfoundation.org/FactCheckingReport2022 

 The rumors that were selected for factchecking (due to specific criteria related to impact, outreach and source) were fact-checked and distributed back in the same channels were they circulated including WhatsApp groups. This has increased the interaction between our teams and local communities sending us any information they wanted to check its accuracy. The link to our methodology (https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter) states clearly what statements can be fact-checked and we always try to explain to our communities that we cannot factcheck opinion.

Explanation clear. A time frame is needed.

Also a part in the methodology (https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter). The correction policy clears how the correction is made in a transparent way adding the date of the correction. Also background information can be added with a mention as well. Only typing mistakes are corrected without a mention. Also users are encouraged to send evidence to be used for correction:

سياسة التصحيح أو التحديث

للمنصة سياسة شفافة في ما يخص تصحيح، تعديل او تحديث للتص الاصلي، حيث يتم تحديث النص بالمعلومات الجديدة، وتتم الاشارة الى اي اضافة او تعديل على النص الاصلي وتاريخ التحديث.

يوضح التصحيح المعلومات الصحيحة التي تمت إضافتها إلى التقرير. إذا لزم الأمر، فإنه يكرر المعلومات غير الصحيحة للإشارة الى المعلومات الموردة سابقا. كما يشار صراحة الى تأثير التصحيح على التصنيف فيما لو أثرت المعلومات المضافة على نتيجة التحقق. يتم ذلك عبر اضافة فقرة على التقرير بعنوان تصحيح مع شرح للمعلومات الاضافية وتأثيرها على التصنيف.

كما نقوم بتصحيح الأخطاء المطبعية والأخطاء النحوية والأخطاء الإملائية وغيرها من الأخطاء الصغيرة التي يمكن ان ترد في التقارير عند التنبه لها دون الاشارة الى انه تم تصحيح هذه الاخطاء المطبعية.

من الممكن ايضا ان نضيف معلومات إلى التقارير بعد نشرها، ليس كتصحيح وإنما كخدمة للقراء. تتضمن الأمثلة ردًا من المتحدث الذي تلقيناه بعد النشر، أو الأخبار العاجلة او التطورات ذات الصلة بالتحقق التي تستجد بعد النشر.

كما نستقبل اقتراح القراء للتصحيح او التحديث التي نتلقاها على البريد الالكتروني: factometer@maharat-news.com 

Policy is clear

The policy is clear.

One correction request was received during the past on a fact check related to Internet speed in the Lebanese regions; We received a request from the telecommunication ministry where we highlighted at the end of the fact check that we added the reply of the ministry which changed the result of the fact check from not true to partially true. here's a link to the fact check https://maharat-news.com/ookla-speedtest-4g-lebanon-mobiledata 

Another correction was made where we received additional information from the world bank that changed the result to true. Here's a link to the factcheck: https://maharat-news.com/worldbank-lebanon-financialcrisis-2035 

While in the 1st story the correction is clear, the second one mentioned a "correction" without any explanation.

We will mark this criterion compliant. However, Maharat needs a systematic approach to any correction. It has to be explained and highlighted as in the 1st story 

 in the last sentence of the methodology: https://www.maharat-news.com/fact-o-meter

يذكر ان قسم التحقق من المعلومات في maharat-news هو عضو في الشبكة الدولية للتحقق من المعلومات IFCN. يمكنم تقديم شكوى على موقع الشبكة اذا اعتقدتم ان قسم التحقق في maharat-news يخرق مبادئ IFCN التي يمكن الاطلاع عليها على موقع الشبكة.

Link provided

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