Celebrating fact-checking around the globe

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Celebrating fact-checking around the globe

2025-04-03 05:46 Last Updated At：05:51

It's International Fact-Checking Day, an event to highlight the work of fact-checkers around the world.

In a message marking the day, Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the the International Fact-Checking Network, noted the recent challenges faced by fact-checkers, including a loss of funding and attacks on fact-checkers and their organizations.

“This is indeed a crisis for fact-checkers, but it’s even worse for the general public,” Holan said Wednesday. “Disinformation hurts people. It has real-world consequences. Without fact-checking, more grandparents will fall victim to financial scams. Adults will refuse to vaccinate children against proven killers like measles. Teens will read faked reports of current events with no way to tell them apart from the real thing.”

The IFCN launched in 2015, started the event in 2016 and has more than 170 members around the world. Each signatory has been vetted and approved by independent assessors. They are required to show a commitment to nonpartisanship and transparency, about both sources and funding.

The Associated Press is a member of the IFCN, a unit of the Poynter Institute.

Getting the facts right has been core to AP’s mission since our founding in 1846. When a public figure says something questionable, it is our job to investigate it and offer the facts.

It appears the AP's first stand-alone political fact check was written Nov. 9, 1993, around a debate between Vice President Al Gore and businessman Ross Perot on the merits of the North American Free Trade Agreement, often referred to as NAFTA.

From there it has grown from fact-checking politicians' speech to checking for false and misleading information that gains widespread traction online. You can find those stories here.

We also do live fact-checking around events like presidential addresses, political debates and campaign events.

As with all AP staff, AP fact checkers must adhere to the company’s Statement of News Values, which states: “AP employees must avoid behavior or activities — political, social or financial — that create a conflict of interest or compromise our ability to report the news fairly and accurately, uninfluenced by any person or action.”

Learn more from AP’s Statement of News Values and Principles.

Rescuers search for a girl missing after a migrant boat sank near Greek island

2025-04-04 20:33 Last Updated At：20:51

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard said Friday that a search and rescue operation off an eastern island near the Turkish coast had still not found any trace of a child reported missing after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants sank, leaving seven people dead and 23 rescued.

The search continued for a second day, after survivors told authorities there had been a total of 31 people in the small dinghy.

A coast guard patrol boat came across the vessel, measuring about 5 meters (15 feet) in length, in the early hours of Thursday morning when it was already taking on water and most of its passengers had fallen into the sea, the coast guard said.

The coast guard said Thursday that all those on board were from Afghanistan. One of the survivors, identified only as a 20-year-old man, was identified by other passengers as having piloted the boat and was arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling.

Turkish authorities had also reported the sinking of a boat carrying migrants in the same area on Thursday. The Canakkale governor’s office said the Turkish coast guard received an emergency call for help from a migrant boat on Thursday morning. Nine bodies were recovered while one person was reported missing, and 25 people were rescued, the governor’s office said.

Greece is one of the main entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with many making the short but often treacherous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies or other small boats. Many are unseaworthy, or set out in bad weather, and fatal accidents have been common.

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration