TjekDet.dk is a part of the 25 years old weekly magazine Mandag Morgen (translates to Monday Morning) English description: https://www.mm.dk/artikel/about-mm. TjekDet is verified by Facebook and was in November invited by Facebook as one of few factchecking mediapartners.

TjekDet.dk was launched in November 2016.

TjekDet.dk has received financial support for innovation by the Ministry of Culture (see "Mandag Morgen") https://slks.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/0_SLKS/Dokumenter/Medier/Mediestoette/Innovationspuljen_2017/Liste_over_tilskudsmodtagere_Innovationspuljen_1._ansoegningsrunde_2017.pdf

When TjekDet.dk was launched it was noted in several media http://journalisten.dk/nyt-faktatjek-site-vil-bekaempe-det-postfaktuelle-samfund (Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=da&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fjournalisten.dk%2Fnyt-faktatjek-site-vil-bekaempe-det-postfaktuelle-samfund&edit-text=)

https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/millioner-bevilget-til-kampen-mod-falske-nyheder (Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.altinget.dk%2Fartikel%2Fmillioner-bevilget-til-kampen-mod-falske-nyheder)

The website TjekDet.dk is part of Danish media outlet and think tank Mandag Morgen, founded in 1989. Mandag Morgen is a registered Danish publishing company. Corporate data about Mandag Morgen can be found at data.virk.dk. The purpose of TjekDet is to fact check news in the public debate, appearing in traditional media, online and in particular on social media. 

All fact checking articles can be found here: https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel.aspx?type=106 (Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel.aspx%3Ftype%3D106)

The first piece of news appeared on the site the 13th of August 2016, and since then news are published every week, sometimes several times a day. Facts are checked under the headline Faktatjek and a clear no or yes often appearing already in the headline indicates if a standpoint is true or false. Furthermore, more in-depth analysis around current claims in the public debate are given under the headline Viralspiralen where popular social media rumours are scrutinized. The headline Verd at vide serves as stories giving the reader more background to a certain topic, and finally Perspektiv, is dedicated to stories about the phenomenon fake news and desinformation. 

TjekDet.dk is a part of the established weekly magazine Mandag Morgen (Monday Morning) which follows the press ethical rules in Denmark. English translation here: http://www.pressenaevnet.dk/press-ethical-rules/

These rules states that yt is the duty of the media to publish information correctly and promptly, Information which may be prejudicial or insulting or detract from the respect in which individuals should be held shall be very closely examined before publication, attacks and replies should, where this is reasonable, be published together and in the same way, a clear distinction shall be drawn between factual information and comments, the form and content of headlines and subheadlines shall be substantiated by the article or publication in question, incorrect information shall be corrected on the editors’ own initiative etc.

In order to protect sources to a fact check it is always up for consideration whether the sources should be refered to by name. This in order to protect a source that might not be aware of the consequences of a statement etc.

TjekDet especially focus on claims on social media, which have been shared substantially. Therefore, statements not only come from politicians or other prominent decisionmakers, but people with a many followers on social media – fx 10,000.

TjekDet must always only seek claims that have broad attention and in that way be a politically balanced media, where factcheck-articles never express an opinion.

TjekDets factchecking is always based on science based facts/documentation. At least two researchers must evaluate a clame – except where this is not possible because of lack of scientists within the field of the factcheck.

The source to a claim is always contacted and asked for comments – offered to respond.

Ex 1:

Media pumps fear: 20 percent increased breast cancer risk is in fact very small https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/medie-pumper-frygten-op-20-procent-oeget-brystkraeftrisiko-er-i-virkeligheden-meget-lille

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fmedie-pumper-frygten-op-20-procent-oeget-brystkraeftrisiko-er-i-virkeligheden-meget-lille"

Ex 2:

Politician blows up the lies of minor asylum seekers

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/dfer-blaeser-mindreaarige-asylansoegeres-loegne-op

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fdfer-blaeser-mindreaarige-asylansoegeres-loegne-op)

Ex 3:

No, intelligence is inherited not only from mother

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/nej-intelligens-arves-ikke-kun-fra-mor

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fnej-intelligens-arves-ikke-kun-fra-mor)

Ex 4:

The EU will not ban your kebab

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/nej-eu-vil-ikke-forbyde-kebab

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fnej-eu-vil-ikke-forbyde-kebab)

Ex 5:

Advantages of the party The Alternative's desire for 100 percent ecology are guesswork

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/fordele-bag-alternativets-oenske-om-100-procent-oekologi-er-gaetvaerk

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Ffordele-bag-alternativets-oenske-om-100-procent-oekologi-er-gaetvaerk)

Ex 6:

Denmark is not the only country with taxes on electric cars

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/danmark-er-ikke-det-eneste-land-med-afgifter-paa-elbiler

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fdanmark-er-ikke-det-eneste-land-med-afgifter-paa-elbiler)

Ex 7:

Is it mom or dad who most hits the children?

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/er-det-mor-eller-far-der-slaar-boernene-mest

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fer-det-mor-eller-far-der-slaar-boernene-mest)

Ex 8:

Greenpeace fails in fact check by Lars Løkke Rasmussen's (prime minister) self-reliance

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/greenpeace-fejler-i-faktatjek-af-lars-loekke-rasmussens-selvros

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fgreenpeace-fejler-i-faktatjek-af-lars-loekke-rasmussens-selvros)

Ex 9:

Please, there are not 1.2 million Muslims in Denmark

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/der-er-altsaa-ikke-12-millioner-muslimer-i-danmark

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fder-er-altsaa-ikke-12-millioner-muslimer-i-danmark)

Ex 10:

Politician lacks facts when he calls the government greenest

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/v-politiker-mangler-fakta-naar-han-kalder-regeringen-groennest

(Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fv-politiker-mangler-fakta-naar-han-kalder-regeringen-groennest)

The range of topics in the fact checks appear to be varied over time, and also during the average week. Stories are not concentrated on specific sides of a topic. However, there is a slight emphasize on the internet, digital technology in the context of surveillance, algorithms and social networking sites. As the site provide stories that are not primarily of a fact-checking nature but serve more as background material, I would say there is a tendency to overemphasize the topic fake news and perhaps a small, but still detectable tendency to stories that provide a sense of safety in terms of assurances that it is nothing to worry about with different forms of online surveillance.

I suspect that the “fake news” category is somewhat of a profile issue for TjekDet, and new technology and innovation for Mandag Morgen. The average Danish reader may be aware of this and may not see this as strange or problematic.

Being part of the established weekly magazine Mandag Morgen (Monday Morning) TjekDet is following the press ethical rules in Denmark. English translation here: http://www.pressenaevnet.dk/press-ethical-rules/

Freedomhouse.org states the Danish press as free. "Freedom of speech is protected in Section 77 of the constitution, and the government generally respects this right in practice. However, legal restrictions exist for libel, blasphemy, and racism. Discussions about removing legal restrictions for blasphemy continued at the start of the year, but in March 2015 Denmark confirmed that it would keep its antiblasphemy law in place."

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/denmark

Denmark continued its position as one of the few success stories in an era in which global media freedom is coming increasingly under threat, says a new report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2017#

All employees are subject to the following ethical guidelines in their employment contract:

Hability and integrity

The employees of Altinget (owner of Mandag Morgen/TjekDet) must act in such a way that their independence and integrity can not be questioned.

This means avoiding mixing work-related tasks and private relationships. Therefore, membership of parties, associations and organizations, as well as certain private-sector investments, may be incompatible with some assignments. Talk to your leader if you are in doubt.

Social Media

Social media is both a natural part of most people's private life and working life, and it can be difficult to distinguish when acting as an employee and an individual. Employees should therefore always act on social media carefully so that it does not harm the ability to perform their work.

Gifts

Employees may not receive gifts, services or similar from sources, customers, collaborators and others for reasons of habituity. Except for this, gifts in minor size and gifts of a natural size in connection with birthdays, anniversaries and more.

On the Mandag Morgen website, there are clear opinion pieces, but I did not find similar obvious stories on TjekDet.

Fact-checks are made of statements from politicians from a range of Danish political parties, and at times foreign politicians as well, such as Trump.

Our factchecking articles follows the same procedure:

1. What is the specific claim

2. Who is the source to the claim

3. Where has it been put forward

4. Virality of the claim

5. Our conclusion of the fact check

6. At least two experts assesment of the claim – based on scientific documentation

7. Graphic, including fx Facebookpost, links to research on which the factcheck is based

8. Responce from source of the claim

9. Journalist contact information

Links to source articles are provided as well as screen shots of social media comments (to illustrate if something has gone viral). References to data sources are given when there are graphs or tables containing data. As stated in the application, stories frequently include scientists as sources.

TjekDet.dk is a part of the weekly magazine Mandag Morgen (Monday Morning) - as stated here https://www.mm.dk/artikel/about-mm. Therefore, TjekDet is partly funded by this media, partly by a public fund (https://slks.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/0_SLKS/Dokumenter/Medier/Mediestoette/Innovationspuljen_2017/Liste_over_tilskudsmodtagere_Innovationspuljen_1._ansoegningsrunde_2017.pdf) funds - and finally by donations from private persons/readers. We do not accept donations from interest group, lobbyist or other persons or organizations with anykind of political agenda.

TjekDet is a section of Mandag Morgen, and this is clearly stated on the website. The specifics about sources of funding for TjekDet cannot be found on the website, although the “Support TjekDet” page on the website claims that the initiative is run by donations from it’s users. It is not easy to get to the Mandag Morgen website from TjekDet, and specifics about funding cannot be found on this website either. But the annual report can be found on virk.dk using the CVR number as search string. TjekDet is however not mentioned in the Mandag Morgen annual report. From this report it seems as if there is a need for other branches within Altinget.dk to support Mandag Morgen. Because these things are unclear, my recommendation is that additional information with specifics about funding, for example the public funding stated in the application, is added to the TjekDet website.

Overall description of ownership can be found here: https://www.mm.dk/artikel/about-mm. Editor in chief and manager Lisbeth Knudsen: https://www.mm.dk/forfatter.aspx?id=75 (Google translated to English: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=da&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Fforfatter.aspx%3Fid%3D75&edit-text=”. Editor Thomas Hedin: https://www.mm.dk/forfatter.aspx?id=91. (Google translated to English: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Fforfatter.aspx%3Fid%3D91) Other journalists at TjekDet can be found in the section "media" on this page: https://www.mm.dk/artikel/medarbejdere

A link to the editor in chief bio is provided. The link takes you to the Mandag Morgen website. No specific list of TjekDet staff is provided on the TjekDet website, however a link to a staff list with all the Mandag Morgen staff can be found at the bottom of the page. There are some bios provided for journalists following links from this list, but in many cases you will only find their published articles.

https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/omtjekdet (Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Fomtjekdet)

The e-mail address to TjekDet is easy to find.

Our most important tool is scientific documented knowledge/facts. It is also important that we give readers a clear conclusion. We must not leave it to the readers to decide which of more than one possible conclusion that might be the right one. But is is always experts which provides the basis for the conclusion As stated earlier our factchecking articles follows the same procedure: 1. What is the specific claim 2. Who is the source to the claim 3. Where has it been put forward 4. Virality of the claim 5. Our conclusion of the fact check 6. At least two experts assesment of the claim – based on scientific documentation 7. Graphic, including fx Facebookpost, links to research on which the factcheck is based 8. Responce from source of the claim 9. Journalist contact information

In the about section “Om TjekDet there is an excellent description of their intention with the initiative. Within stories, methodology are in most cases implicitly explained as arguments are either proven or falsified using source material of different sorts. But it wouldn’t hurt if the list provided in the application for fact checkers network was published on the website as well.

Readers are mainly encouraged to send us tips via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tjekdetdk/ and Twitter. But there is also a tip us page at https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/tjekdettip (Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=da&sl=da&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mm.dk%2Ftjekdet%2Fartikel%2Ftjekdettip)

TjekDet encourages readers to contact them with things they would like the site to fact check. But there is no explanation of what cannot be fact-checked.

Corrections or additions are always placed on the individual articles. However, we have not yet had to make factual corrections in articles. Since TjekDet.dk is a factual based media it is important that necessary corrections are published as soon as possible – and again based on scientific documentation. This rule is not stated on webpage, why internal handbook must be forwarded by email.

I could not find a public corrections policy on the website. There is however an ethical guidelines page available on the Mandag Morgen website.

We have had only few examples of corrections:

In this article https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/var-en-afsavet-finger the following addition was added:

”Update (May 30, 2017 - 22:00): 24NYT has changed its story about the assassination of the two French Jews after the publication this blog, so it's no longer a finger's cut.”

In this article https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/alternativt-klandrer-regeringen-for-koldt-og-vindstille-vejr a partly addition and partly correction was added:

”Added on September 28th: Statistics Denmark has later updated the article so it has several nuances, including Co2 emissions caused by transport)”

In this article https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/eu-har-ikke-svunget-sparekniven-over-2-000-offentligt-ansatte a correction was added:

”Update (June 9, at 20.31): The article was initially published with an introduction that could give the impression that Rina Ronja Kari had said that the EU had directly demanded that 2,000 public employees in Denmark will be fired. Following dialogue with the People's Movement against the European Union, it is stated that Rina Ronja Kari believes that EU requirements last year contributed to the fate of 2,000 public employees in Denmark.”

The evidence is fully compliant with IFCN standards.