Fact-Checking Overview
Facts Matter
Disinformation continues to pose a serious challenge for democratic societies, contributing to distrust in public institutions and facilitating the spread of misleading narratives around major issues, including elections, public health crises, and international conflicts.
To help address this challenge in the Mediterranean region, MedDMO brings together experienced fact-checking organisations that monitor and verify information circulating in Greece, Cyprus and Malta.
All fact-checking activities carried out within MedDMO follow the professional standards and methodologies of the organisations participating in the hub, namely AFP, Ellinika Hoaxes, and Times of Malta. These organisations have established expertise in investigating and verifying claims, identifying misleading narratives, and providing the public with accurate and well-documented information.
Some of the organisations involved are also members of international fact-checking networks, such as the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Membership in these networks requires adherence to strict principles of transparency, independence, and methodological rigor. Compliance with these standards is regularly assessed through independent reviews and audits, ensuring that fact-checking practices remain credible and trustworthy.
Through this collaboration, MedDMO aims to support the public in developing critical thinking skills and distinguishing reliable information from false or misleading claims.
The fact-checkers:
AFP, a global leader in digital verification, is a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) code of principles. These include a commitment to: non-partisanship and fairness, transparency of sources, transparency of funding and organisation, transparency of methodology and an open and honest corrections policy.
AFP’s work is carried out by fact-checking journalists and editors who work closely with the agency’s entire international network and follow the same editorial standards and key guiding principles.
As well as traditional journalism skills, AFP uses a number of simple tools to verify online information, some common sense and a lot of caution. Starting out with a specific question, AFP seeks to investigate and report dubious stories and claims that may or may not end up on our newswires. It seeks non-partisan, publicly available information in its investigations, and links to it online. AFP’s journalists monitor online content in local languages, from Amharic to Hindi, German or Dutch. They take into account local cultures, languages and politics and work with AFP’s bureaus worldwide to investigate and disprove false information, focusing on items that can be harmful, impactful and manipulative.
Ellinika Hoaxes has been active since 2013 and has grown into a leading fact-checking organisation in Greece, representing the first organised effort in the country to promote fact-checking. Publishing around 50 debunking articles monthly, Ellinika Hoaxes verifies and provides context to misleading material circulating online, thus contributing to efforts aimed at ensuring a safe information environment. In addition to its fact-checking work, Ellinika Hoaxes also contributes to media literacy by taking part in training events and delivering lectures and workshops.
Ellinika Hoaxes has been a signatory to the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) since 2019 and, since 2024, a signatory of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN). Both networks aim to ensure that fact-checking organisations adhere to the highest standards of methodology, ethics, and transparency in order to best serve the public interest. Through EFCSN, Ellinika Hoaxes has contributed to multiple projects such as Elections24Check, FactCRISIS, Climate Facts Europe, and AI@EUElections.
The Fact Check Cyprus Center was integrated into the Social Computing Research Center of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) on November 20, 2023, and it represents the culmination of a collaboration among individuals from Cyprus and Greece who are engaged in combating disinformation. CUT is a public academic institution in Cyprus and operates as a non-profit organization, a status that also applies to Fact-Check Cyprus. The Center’s objective is twofold: on the one hand, to debunk fake news, and on the other, to educate the public on combating disinformation and on media literacy. The selection of topics is determined exclusively by the editorial team of Fact-Check Cyprus.
The methodology of Fact Check Cyprus places particular emphasis on topics submitted by readers, as well as on claims selected by the editorial team based on public interest and significance. The selection of topics, research, writing, and the final result belong exclusively to the editorial team, while other collaborators maintain only an advisory role regarding technical or methodological issues. As a Center integrated within a Public University, it operates with full editorial independence and academic freedom, without political commitments, without accepting donations from politicians or parties, and with a clear separation between the administrative structure and decisions regarding fact-checking. For the sake of impartiality and quality, every fact-check passes through at least one additional editor, or more when the case is more complex. The methodology is accompanied by a corrections policy, with substantive corrections being prominently noted within the article itself and publicly documented.
At the same time, Fact Check Cyprus discloses information regarding its structure, team, funding sources, and the mechanisms that protect its independence. As of the beginning of 2026, Fact Check Cyprus is the only fact-checker from Cyprus that is an accredited member of the EFCSN and the IFCN in Cyprus.
Times of Malta, Malta’s leading media organisation, provides fact-checked articles about Malta and Maltese subjects of interest. Founded in 1935, Times of Malta is the oldest daily newspaper in Malta still in circulation and its website is the country’s most visited news site. Times of Malta prides itself on being independent. It is not affiliated to any external organisation or political party.
Journalists are required to follow a code of ethics that instructs them to seek the truth at all times, identify sources where possible, act independently and disclose conflicts of interest, and remain free of political associations or ties that may compromise their integrity.
Times of Malta’s fact-checking service is the first of its kind in Malta. Fact-checking articles are published on a dedicated section on the Times of Malta website.