people of lying, or don’t go in hard enough on politicians,” says Worrall. “It’s not a crusade. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to be fair-minded.” Channel 4’s FactCheck was set up for the 2005 general


election before going full time five years later. Its small team consists of Worrall (whose background is in local and national news) and Georgina Lee, a former civil servant. A fact-checking service is always more likely to check on the Government than the opposition, he adds. In addition, fact checkers should consider whether a lie was deliberate or malicious, plus the impact it is likely to have – if any – on people’s lives. The BBC’s Reality Check, which employs 12 journalists, is one of the newer fact-checking teams. Created for the 2015 general election then reactivated for the EU referendum, it also now operates full time and is as likely to report on international affairs as UK politics. It attempts to “live fact-check” Prime Minister’s Questions


as well as debates held during election campaigns, though explicit criticism of the government or individual politicians is rare. “We don’t just focus on Boris Johnson. We focus on Keir Starmer as well,” says Rupert Carey, editor of Reality Check. The crucial thing, he adds, is to place claims and falsehoods


in context so reporters can explain the bigger picture to the BBC audience: “We don’t want to get bogged down in semantics. It’s about adding valuable analysis across BBC news.” Fact checking and verification are becoming part of


journalism training. Last year, Full Fact started delivering an online module for the National Council for the Training of Journalists. “We see fact checking as an integral part of the journalist’s kit bag,” says Pippa Allen-Kinross. For the past two years, Full Fact has worked with fact-


checking organisations in Argentina and three African countries to develop an online tool that automatically flags up and checks claims that are verifiable. The tool, funded through a grant from Google, breaks speech down according to the type of claim being made, then labels parts of sentences that can be checked reasonably easily. Potentially, this allows fact checkers to investigate hundreds of more claims each day. But do not expect machine tools to do all the work. Fact


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checking frequently involves scouring the internet to uncover long-lost documents or wading through statistics. Chatting to contacts is also vital. “You should not be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to


people,” says Patrick Worrall at Channel 4. “You need to get the most out of sources, but fluency and data in graphs really helps.” Allan Leonard, editor of FactCheckNI, says many people,


including academics, are pleased to talk over research they carried out, rather than risk journalists quoting sections of lengthy reports out of context. Set up in 2005, FactCheckNI sets out “to investigate the claim not the claimant”. Its roots lie in encouraging participative democracy. It tries to avoid being a reactive service, instead setting out to explain issues crucial to understanding current affairs in Northern Ireland. This means working closely with bodies such as the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. “I can ring up a government department and get whatever I


It’s not a crusade. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to be fair-minded


want,” says Leonard. “I’m not a journalist who upsets their boss. I’m just a nerdy stats guy.” FactCheckNI sometimes pays journalists for research. Members of the public may suggest claims that need looking into. The important thing is to get to the truth and dispel myths, especially on social media. “We look at what’s trending, what goes viral, and what has potential for harm if it’s not investigated,” adds Leonard. So, what skills are needed to be a fact checker? Besides an ability to work with data, Rupert Carey points to the need for an enquiring mind and a healthy degree of scepticism. “You can’t take everything as read,” he adds. “You need the appetite to probe more deeply into what people are saying.” It also helps not to desire recognition. Fact checkers are


unlikely to gain much kudos for beavering away in the background and pointing out others’ inaccuracies. Attempts to create short segments around fact checks for Channel 4 News proved unsuccessful, says Worrall. An apology from a politician is also probably out of the question. But there may be the satisfaction that, providing a lie is never repeated, the efforts of a fact checker have ensured more people are aware of the truth or at least less aware of something that is false.


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