The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has launched a new collaborative network that will engage in fact-checking an open source intelligence with the goal of helping newsrooms at public service broadcasters fight online misinformation.
The unit, called the Eurovision News Spotlight (ENS), will include participation from 18 EBU members and franchises the Alliance for Facts project that was previously launched by Radio France.
ENS will produce material that will assist in strengthening news output and investigative journalism initiatives for all EBU members. Participating members include public service broadcasters like France Télévisions, Radio France and TV5MONDE; ZDF and Deutsche Welle in Germany; RTVE in Spain; the BBC in the United Kingdom; ORF in Austria; YLE in Finland; and Radio-Canada, among others.
“In a digital-first world, we face a worsening crisis of inaccurate, false and synthetic information that tests our certainty of truth and reality,” said Liz Corbin, the Director of News at the EBU. “We invite all EBU members and partners to contribute to this powerful collective defense against misinformation as a vital part of public service media’s mission to deliver trusted news to all people.”
“Public service media have a unique responsibility to act as a harbor of facts in a sea of fakes and uncertainty — but we cannot face these challenges alone. We need ongoing training, effective tools and global collaboration to identify and respond to local threats,” said Florent Latrive, Deputy Director of News at Radio France. “That’s why, together with all French public media services, we proposed the Alliance for Facts. And that’s also why we’re proud to build Spotlight with the EBU, which is exactly the right place to come together and stand up for the integrity of information.”
The launch of ENS comes at a time when other countries — notably, the United States — are pulling back on some of their global broadcasting endeavors. In recent weeks, the U.S. has moved to wind down the operations of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and the Voice of America, which provided reliable information to hundreds of countries, including dozens within Europe.
