Methodology

Fact Investigation Platform (FIP.am) constitutes a separate team of the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) NGO that acts as an independent media outlet specializing in fact-checking journalism. FIP.am has structural and editorial independence, as well as a code of conduct for FIP.am journalists (see below).

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for establishing the editorial policy, approving topics and articles, reviewing materials, and verifying the facts contained therein and reports to no one. The publishing editor is responsible for proofreading the articles and, if necessary, replacing the Editor-in-Chief and reports to the Editor-in-Chief.

Journalists-fact-checkers are responsible for monitoring the news, feed, social networks, the interviews and speeches of political, public and other figures, identifying topics, studying them, checking suspicious statements and facts, starting work on new topics in cooperation with the Editor-in-Chief, and submitting articles. They report to the Editor-in-Chief.

The cameraman-editor is responsible for preparing the multimedia files for publications and reports to the Editor-in-Chief.

The Social Media Specialist (SMM) is responsible for sharing articles on social platforms, tracking feedback and reactions, as well as making the content of the Fact Investigation Platform accessible to a wider target audience and effectively raising awareness of circulating disinformation and reports to the Editor-in-Chief.

The translation team comprises 2 English and Russian translators who report to the Editor-in-Chief.

Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) is the parent organization of FIP.am. UIC publicly lists the funding sources for each project, including the projects that fund FIP.am. FIP.am, in turn, publicly presents the project partners at the bottom of the website.

Check the authenticity of all quoted evidence and statements, do not manipulate or distort the quoted speech.

FIP.am team members are obliged to put aside their political preferences and maintain absolute non-partisanship and impartiality during fact-checking. They shall not work for or be funded in any way by any political party or political party representative.

The organization ensures this criterion by signing a nonpartisanship agreement with all newly hired team members. In addition, for maximum credibility, team members continuously strive to develop their skills and knowledge to ensure accuracy, this being one of the fundamental principles of the organization’s mission.

With its primary goal to provide the public with accurate information and keep it free from disinformation, the Fact Investigation Platform is also committed to checking statements and information of interest to its readers.

As part of their job duties, Fact Investigation Platform journalists monitor Armenian broadcasters, online, print and social media outlets, including those created by political parties and/or the Russian government or with Russian affiliation (such as Sputnik). Armenia,” “Kommersant,” “Regnum,” “Ria Novosti”).

Team members use advanced search tools to identify fake content on social networks and present it to the reader.

Fact Investigation Platform also has a fairly active audience, which has the opportunity to send information about allegedly fake materials through a special section of the platform’s website or Facebook page.

FIP.am’s editorial staff checks and rates only verifiable claims, focusing on viral or malicious content and systematic discrediting campaigns.

It is the responsibility of the Editor of FIP.am to hold a daily editorial meeting with the team and to select material from the monitoring database and/or from the statements identified that may be false or manipulative. When selecting such information from the media monitoring results or materials sent by the audience, the editorial staff of Fact Investigation Platform is guided by the following criteria:

FIP verifies facts through open sources, sometimes it contacts the Armenian government and/or public agencies for additional information on the matter of concern.

The very first step is to determine whether a news story is unbalanced and which source is missing in it. Then, a reliable independent source is sought to check the information. Search is undertaken to find out whether a similar information was published in any other reliable media outlet.

In verifying information, Fact Investigation Platform follows FIP’s media and information literacy guidelines:

Based on the results of fact checking, FIP.am specialists evaluate the types of information found within the rating system of Fact Investigation Platform: completely correct, partially correct, without verdict, mostly true, completely incorrect, fake, manipulative.

In preparing each article, FIP.am strives to provide all the sources and tools which were used to check the statements and facts, so that our reader, going through all the references and sources, can go through the same path as our specialists and check the article and authenticity of data.

When a source regularly spreads fake news or a media outlet is created without any mention on the beneficial owner, the fact checker searches for additional information about the source.

In the case of media, such additional data includes information about owners and funding available in open sources and is verified against the register of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

In preparing articles, FIP.am journalists observe the fact-checking writing style guide. The article is released only upon being double-checked by the editor and proofreader.