Organization: Pagella Politica
Applicant: TFCF SRL (VAT 02595010352)
Assessor: Paolo Attivissimo
Conclusion and recommendations
Paolo Attivissimo wrote:
Pagella Politica is fully compliant with the criteria and in some cases exceeds them. I have no remaining recommendations, since all the ones I sent to Pagella Politica during the assessment have been accepted and acted on.
Paolo Attivissimo recommended Accept
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Pagella Politica is registered as a limited liability company (società a responsabilità limitata semplificata) that performs fact-checking, debunking, training, and consulting. Evidence of legal registration is in the attached statement (visura) from the Chamber of Commerce of Reggio Emilia.
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The document provided is compliant with the criteria.
done_all 1a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
In the past three months (3 March 2019 to 3 June 2019), Pagella Politica has produced around 90 fact-checks and about 152 debunkings. Some (but not all) of these fact-checks/debunkings have been produced in the context of Pagella’s cooperation with national newswire AGI (https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/), with national broadcaster RAI, with Facebook hoax debunking programme, with the SOMA project (https://www.disinfobservatory.org/) and with the FactCheckEU alliance (https://factcheckeu.info/it/).
Fact-checks are collected according to different criteria in respectively the “Claims” and “Blog” sections of Pagella Politica’s website, while the articles produced in the context of the collaboration with AGI are published in their full version in AGI’s fact-checking sections. See https://pagellapolitica.it/dichiarazioni/verificato, https://pagellapolitica.it/blog/index and https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/
Debunkings are all collected in chronological order at the “debunking” section of Pagella Politica’s website: https://pagellapolitica.it/bufale/index
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
I have checked the links provided and I have found them to comply with the description provided by Pagella Politica.
done_all 1b marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Our fact-checking process starts with a daily selection of the relevant political claims. To ensure nonpartisanship and fairness, the selection is based on a scan of an ample range of newspapers, newswire agencies, political TV shows and social networks accounts. Such selection provides us with a great variety of political positions and claims every day. The claims to be checked are then chosen autonomously by AGI’s newsroom, for AGI’s fact-checking section, mainly in view of which are the topics are “hotter” in the political debate, and without any relevant attention on who said the claim. For our website, the claims are also chosen autonomously by a pool of ten contributors. In no stage of the process the actual source of the claim (who said it) plays any relevant role in terms of selection. We apply the same standard thorough the peer-reviewing phase of every article we publish.
Here are the links to ten fact checks that well represent the scope and consistency of our fact-checking:
https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/italia_spread_monti-5575187/news/2019-05-31/
https://pagellapolitica.it/blog/show/348/pi%C3%B9-studi-pi%C3%B9-voti-lega
https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/ue_deficit_tre_per_cento_chi_sfora-5560196/news/2019-05-29/
https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/sea_watch_migranti_procura-5514935/news/2019-05-21/
https://www.agi.it/fact-checking/evasione_fiscale_italia-5492617/news/2019-05-17/
https://pagellapolitica.it/dichiarazioni/8182/no-il-m5s-non-presenta-9-proposte-di-legge-su-10
https://pagellapolitica.it/dichiarazioni/8133/boldrini-ha-ragione-sulle-donne-nel-governo-italiano
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
I have examined the listed samples and found them compliant with the criteria.
done_all 2a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
None of the founders and staff are part of any political party or organisation. It is a requirement during the selection process of new fact-checkers. All of this is publicly stated on our website: https://pagellapolitica.it/progetto/index
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The organization has a public webpage which describes clearly and in detail its policy on the subjects.
done_all 2b marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Our philosophy is to provide the reader with all the elements in order to recreate the fact-check by him/herself, and to reach different conclusion if so wishes. Every number or fact is stated in one of our analyses, a direct link is provided, and/or the path to be made into the websites if a direct link is not possible. As a policy, Pagella Politica uses direct sources and primary data bases. This process is explained here: https://pagellapolitica.it/progetto/index
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
I have examined several fact-checks and I have found that they are well-sourced and allow readers to easily identify and reference the sources.
done_all 3a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Our website explains the financial start-up of the project and the identity of its stakeholders (https://pagellapolitica.it/progetto/index), all past and current clients (https://pagellapolitica.it/servizi/index), as well as the projects Pagella Politica is involved in (https://pagellapolitica.it/static/progetti).
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The links provided offer all the required details, in English and in Italian.
done_all 4a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided lists all the relevant information and diligently notes that Alexios Mantzarlis, founding member of Pagella Politica and director of Pagella Politica (Jan 2015-Oct 2015), was also Poynter/IFCN Director during the same period and no longer has the latter role.
done_all 4b marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
Criterion 4c
Contact
Evidence required: Please link to the section where readers can get in touch with the organization.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided offers an effective and valid way to get in touch with the organization.The link is featured prominently on the home page.
done_all 4c marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided explains the general methodology and is easily accessible. Further details on methodology are provided in the individual fact-checks.
done_all 5a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided does work as a submission form, but it is not easy to find; for example, it is not linked on the home page. However, Pagella Politica has stated, in reply to my notes, that this link is no longer being used and that users reach out through the "Contattaci" form (https://pagellapolitica.it/contattaci), which is available from the homepage, and through social media.
done_all 5b marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
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.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided is valid and is clearly linked on the home page.
done_all 6a marked as Fully compliant by Paolo Attivissimo.
Criterion 6b
Examples of corrections
Evidence required: Please provide two examples of a correction made, or correction requests handled, in the past year.
Pagella Politica
04-Jun-2019 (5 years ago)
All of our corrections (with detailed explanation) are listed here - https://pagellapolitica.it/blog/show/50/quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano
Paolo Attivissimo Assessor
12-Aug-2019 (5 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago
The link provided is valid and contains information that fully meets and exceeds the compliance criteria.