Please see section Kako delamo Razkrinkavanje.si (How we work at Razkrinkavanje.si): https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje

Razkrinkavanje.si is a project of Oštro, a centre for investigative journalism in the Adriatic region, a legally registered organization founded in 2018. Information about Razkrinkavanje is easily accessible on Oštro's website.

AD1

Razkrinkavanje.si, a daily fact-checking project, was developed by Oštro, a non-profit center for investigative journalism in the Adriatic region. We launched the project on 6 May 2019 in order to raise the quality of media content and warn the public about misinformation, fake news and just bad journalism that is distributed by the media, elected officials, political parties and interest groups.

Razkrinkavanje.si also functions as a learning hub for journalism students and young reporters because we believe that fact-checking is the best training ground for investigative minds and the cultivation of high professional standards. We work with the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana) to bring students to Oštro’s fact-checking project for learning-by-doing opportunities.

Oštro is one of the founding members of the regional fact-checking network SEE CHECK that verifies information published by media in countries of the former Yugoslavia.

AD2

At Oštro there are eight people working at the moment: three experienced editors, two young journalists and three students of journalism. Oštro’s editorial structure is flexible enough to allow room for continuous learning.

The newsroom consists of a team of:

Core editors:

Anuška Delić is the founder and editor in chief at Oštro. She is also a regional editor with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Klara Škrinjar is the editor of Razkrinkavanje.si.

Maja Čakarić is the social media editor and a deputy editor at Oštro.

Young reporters (below 30):

Katarina Bulatović is assistant editor to Klara Škrinjar and is learning to eventually take over full editorial responsibilities of Razkrinkavanje.si.

Matej Zwitter contributes complex fact-checking analysis to Razkrinkavanje.si, and is also immersed in investigations at Oštro.si.

Oštro currently works with three journalism students: Meta Gantar, Matej Simič and Žana Erznožnik.

AD3

Oštro is a unique centre for investigative journalism in the Adriatic region. It nurtures investigative and data journalism, champions the “right to know” as one of the fundamental human rights, and contributes to the cultivation of future generations of journalists.

We investigate topics in the public interest of people in the Adriatic region and its neighbourhood. Aside from investigating crime, corruption and environmental topics, Oštro runs the only regular media fact-checking project in Slovenia, Razkrinkavanje.si.

Razkrinkavanje.si provides regular analysis of Slovenian media content with zero tolerance for the phenomenon of fake news and disinformation. We also fact-check statements by those who enjoy power and influence in our society. We couple the most important fact-checking stories with visual commentary by three amazing illustrators in order to critically evaluate current misinformation campaigns through illustration.

Currently, we are the only media publisher in Slovenia, for profit or non-profit, that offers a membership program through which we will aim to develop a community with our readers by including them in some of Oštro’s activities and at public editorial meetings.

Oštro is a member of the Organized Crime and Reporting Project (OCCRP), and of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), therefore we regularly reach beyond Slovenia as we conduct cross-border investigations. Our stories are widely and independently sourced according to the highest professional and ethical standards. Our workflow also includes an internal fact-checking process.

AD4

Over the coming year and further, we will organize public editorial meetings to promote the principles of non-profit journalism. There we will discuss our previous investigations, local misinformation campaigns and especially topics that are important to our members and the general public.

The dismantling of a democratic public debate is the goal of the fake news and propaganda industry, while the public at large is rapidly losing its ability to tell facts apart from fiction.

We will continue to provide verified information about important current events and topics that are in the public interest, but perhaps not on the daily agenda of mainstream media, and to offer new generations of journalists opportunities to acquire the journalistic knowledge and skills they cannot acquire in college or in Slovenian mainstream media.

We will develop Razkrinkavanje.si further under the auspices of Oštro.si, however, we expect that Oštro’s fact-checking project will eventually become independent of Oštro’s main website and move on to an editorially fully independent future (with Oštro as publisher).

Razkrinkavanje as a separate project is set up exclusively for the purpose of fact-checking. It was founded last year by a group of experienced journalists and is still work in progress. The editorial team is a mix of experienced editors and young journos. Both journalist and editors have been engaged in the work of Oštro, Razkrinkavanje's founding organization. The roles within two separate projects, so to say, have been intertwined at the moment, and in the future, it would be good to further define the roles of the employees. A step closer, as they have also noticed in their application, would be a separate online platform reserved for fact-checking solely. 

From the beginning of February until the end of July Razkrinkavanje.si published 63 fact-checking stories and 17 visual commentaries of most important fact-checking stories. On average we published 3-4 fact-checking stories per week.

Please see attached file for examples. 

Razkrinkavanje published more than one fact-check per week, often more than 2 per week over the course of six months.

In the last three months, Razkrinkavanje has published fact-check following daily events on relevant topics that brought the attention of the public. 

Oštro is a non-profit and independent media organisation. We have no relationship to the state, politicians or political parties in Slovenia or any other country. Involvement in political parties and advocacy organizations is in conflict with professional media ethics and standards. Oštro is committed to the highest professional standards.

In 2019 Oštro’s fact-checking project Razkrinkavanje.si was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia that runs an annual media co-financing programme.

Oštro publishes its financing data at Ostro.si in Slovenian, Croatian and English.

Please see an attached file about sources of funds.

Oštro received money from Slovenian Ministry of Culture in 2019 through its open call for annual media cofinancing programme. Information about it is visible on their website, although there are no further details describing that the money was allocated for Razkrinkavanje. My advice would be, if possible, to separate funds reserved for Oštro from those received exclusively for Razkrinkavanje.

https://www.ostro.si/en/center

There is an overall statement on Oštro's website declaring it will remain independent no matter who are the parties involved (see: Oštro is not for sale — not for money, nor influence, nor clicks. It has no list of untouchable individuals. It is uncompromising and radically transparent. It runs no advertisements. It doesn't owe anything to anyone. (...) Oštro will conduct its business in a transparent and public manner. It will be financed from grants and from its own income. Oštro will be grateful for any donations — all of which will be used exclusively to advance its mission of excellent journalism). In order, to comply fully with the IFCN rules, it would be good to separate funding between Oštro and Razkrinkavanje. Also, below the articles funded by grants coming from the state funds, it would be good to have a separate disclaimer.

Our selection below shows that the team at Razkrinkavanje.si tackles problematic media content regardless of which media published it, that we reach beyond political affiliations of some news outlets in Slovenia. No publication or statement is excluded from consideration, however, generally preference is given to media with greater reach and consequently greater social responsibility.

The fact-checking stories linked below also demonstrate that we select statements by politicians and officials and other people who enjoy influence and power in society regardless of their personal or political beliefs. What drives our selection is primarily the question of whether fact-checking of a news story or statement is in the public interest, and, secondly, if we can provide a thorough, verifiable and exact analysis of what was stated.

We give priority to primary sources whenever feasible and possible to ensure that our fact-checking analysis is based only on credible and verifiable sources of information, such as regulations, official documents, reports or data. When needed we get the opinions of experts or industry professionals with verifiable professional references.

We always provide evidence in the form of documents, images or links in the fact-checking stories we publish, and without fault respect the right of reply before publication for all subjects of our information verifying efforts.

Finally, the editorial process at Razkrinkavanje.si is multi-level and quite complex in order to ensure that the fact-checking analysis we publish respects the highest professional and ethical standards, that it is written in an approachable manner in order to allow as many readers as possible to quickly identify with a topic and understand the inner workings of misinformation campaigns.

These are examples of non-partisanship of Razkrinkavanje.si:

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/nevladne-organizacije-ne-ogrozajo-varnosti-slovencev

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/verodostojna-primerjava-cene-zascitne-opreme-v-sloveniji-in-na-hrvaskem-ni-mogoca?rq=levica

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/premier-v-govoru-o-stanju-v-drzavi-nizal-neutemeljene-trditve

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/socialni-transferji-v-sloveniji-niso-visji-kot-na-danskem

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/zvizgastvo-ni-javno-tozarjenje

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/verjetnost-raka-v-kanalu-ob-soci-je-vecja-kot-drugod

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/ograja-naj-stoji-med-novinarskimi-in-oglasnimi-besedili

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/druga-svetovna-vojna-se-ni-zacela-s-kolaboracijo-socializma-in-nacizma

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/v-sloveniji-ni-nihce-umrl-zaradi-ebole

https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/odziv-svetu-evrope-ni-depesa

Razkrinkavanje fact-checks cover various topics and are not reserved for a particular party or individual involved in public life in Slovenia. All provided fact-cheks fulfil the criteria, written in accordance with the highest journalistic standards and the methodology explained on their website.

Razkrinkavanje uses a detailed methodology developed by EAVI - European Association for Viewers Interests and used widely among other regional fact-checking centres. They analyze media publications published in all Slovenian media, check posts on social networks, forums, blogs, and public spaces.

Razkrinkavanje seems not the be affiliated with nor it shows support for any party, any politician or political candidate.

Razkrinkavanje.si is committed to the professional principles which are set out in the Slovene Code of Ethics for Journalists and Munich Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists. At the moment we are preparing an internal code of ethics which we are going to publish in September.

Please see bottom of the page: https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje

Razkrinkavanje states to operate within the guidelines and professional principles set out in the Slovenian Journalists' Code and the Munich Declaration. Though committed to adopting its own internal code of ethics, it is still a work in progress and should be the highest priority at this point. Slovenian Journalists' Code is a good starting point nevertheless.

Razkrinkavanje's fact-checks include statements that are subject of evaluation, links to the original publication or publications containing the analyzed claims, and the external links are provided so the readers could evaluate statements themselves.

Razkrinkavanje uses primary sources of evidence whenever it's possible.

Razkrinkavanje cross-checks its sources and relies on more than one source whenever it's possible.

Razkrinkavanje.si is a fact-checking section of Oštro, non-profit media. Oštro.si is registered with Slovenian Ministry of Culture as an online media outlet.

Please see attached file. 

Razkrinkavanje is a fact-checking project founded by Oštro, Slovenian investigative centre.

Please see https://www.ostro.si/en/finances

Razkrinkavanje is a separate section within Oštro's website. Information about its ownership, editorial team and board members are easily accessible on their webpage.

Please see https://www.ostro.si/en/people

Team members' roles and biographies are easily accessible to readers on Oštro's page, and members of the editorial team are also listed within Razkrinkavanje's "team" section.

Please see https://www.ostro.si/en/people

Biographies of the editorial team are listed on Oštro's website. Once Razkrinkavanje gets its own website, biographies of its team should be visible there too.

https://www.ostro.si/en/contact

There are readers' forms and email address they could use to reach out the editorial team is visible at all times on Oštro's website.

Razkrinkavanje uses a detailed methodology developed by EAVI - European Association for Viewers Interests and used widely among other regional fact-checking centres.

The methodology of selecting topics and statements seems fair as it covers a variety of topics and parties in Slovenian political spectre. As explained within their methodology they give preference to stories and topics that gained more reach and are of greater importance. However, there is no explicit explanation of possible explains the reason for choosing the claim to check.

Fact-checks present evidence that appears to support the claim as well as relevant evidence that appears to undermine it.

Same rules apply to all fact-checks I have evaluated, regardless of the topic and the party involved. 

Razkrinkavanje tries to contact those who made the claim to seek supporting evidence, send additional questions and sometimes even update with the answers that were received after the fact-check was already published.

Our readers send inqueries and suggestions for fact-checking on Social Media (Twitter: https://twitter.com/razkrinkavanje, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/razkrinkavanje and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razkrinkavanje.si/).

Readers could send their questions and submit claims in section Piši nam (Write to us) (https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje), and on our webpage section Contact (https://www.ostro.si/si/kontakt).

We also organized a pilot public editorial meeting at the Biennial of Design Ljubljana in December 2019 to build Oštro’s audience and demonstrate, live, how we fact-check stories and why this is needed in today’s media environment. Before the event we encouraged them to send us claims to check and ask questions about the fact-checking process during the event. 

Readers could send their suggestions and proposals through the form on Razkrinkavanje's website. Email address is also available and people are also encouraged to use social media to reach the editorial team.

We publish corrections or complaints under articles which concern correction or complaint. Please see section Preverjena informacija je dobra informacija (Good information is fact-checked information): https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje

Within their "guidelines" section, Razkrinkavanje declares to comply with the professional principles set out in the Slovenian Journalists' Code and the Munich Declaration. Within the same section, they encourage readers and other interested parties to reach out in case a mistake was made or there are suspicions of their articles being bias. For future developments, it would be good to explain how the correction requests will be processed, within which time frame and what is the criteria for taking correction request into account.

As I've previously noted above, the general correction policy seems fair and in line with IFCN standards, but as a part of its development, correction policy should be further explained by adding more information on the evaluation process, i.e how the correction requests will be processed, within which time frame and what is the criteria for taking correction requests into account.

Since the start of Razkrinkavanje.si we have not yet received a request to publish a correction, only two requests to publish a “presentation of opposing facts” (Slovenian: prikaz nasprotnih dejstev).

According to the Slovene Mass Media Act everyone has the right to request a correction of the published informationnotice, which they believe affected his rights or interests. Additionally, the current law stipulates a person is also entitled to publish a “presentation of opposing facts’’ which is not considered a correction but an explanation.

As a rule, we add any corrections or new information to the already published stories in a manner that makes it very clear for our readers that something was changed.. We mark every change clearly with the date of the changes and we graphically emphasize the add-in in order to also make it visually clear to the reader.

For example, when we published a fact-checking story about the travel expenses of a member of parliament, we made a mistake while naming his place of residence (there was a few kilometers difference between the two places). We corrected our mistake clearly by using an asterisk in the title and by writing an explanation about the mistake below the story: https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/potovanje-iz-gorice-vasi-do-drzavnega-zbora?rq=jo%C5%BEe%20tanko%20

While comparing salaries in Slovenia and Austria in order to fact-check the head of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She never responded to us, regardless of her office’s multiple reassurances that she will. However, after publishing the story we received a demand from the Chamber to publish their “presentation of opposing facts”. Although we could have fought the publication as it was not in line with all the legal conditions the editor-in-chief decided to publish the Chamber’s views as they were complementing our fact-checking story. https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/place-so-v-avstriji-obremenjene-bolj-kot-v-sloveniji

Sometimes we have to publish an update because we have received new and relevant information, a Freedom of Information Request may have been granted, a public body finally sent in their explanations and similar.

When we fact-checked a statement by a member of a parliament about how many health workers stayed at home during the covid-19 lock-downs, official information of the Ministry for Public Administration was too scarce to form a final verdict. When we finally did receive the requested information from the ministry, we published a clearly labeled update below the story: https://www.ostro.si/si/razkrinkavanje/objave/v-zdravstvu-marca-ni-bilo-na-cakanju-70-odstotkov-delavcev?rq=jani%20

As stated in the application, Razkrinkavanje has not received any requests for correction yet. However, there have been examples when the editorial decided to correct fact-checks as new information was received or they learn that the mistake was made. In such cases, Raskrinkavanje made a correction and added disclaimer when the story was updated and what was amended.

Oštro is not an existing signatory.

Razkrinkavanje.si is committed to the professional principles which are set out in the Slovene Code of Ethics for Journalists and Munich Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists. At the moment we are preparing an internal code of ethics which we are going to publish in September.

Though the internal correction policy is still in progress, both Oštro and Razkrinkavanje state to operate within the guidelines and professional principles set out in the Slovenian Journalists' Code and the Munich Declaration. One of the priorities in the development plan for Razkrinkavanje should be a transparent correction policy easily accessible on Oštro's website and withing the Razkrinkavanje's page.