With many traditional media facing difficult financial challenges, the task of tackling misinformation and “fake news” has increasingly fallen to independent fact-checking initiatives and start-ups. In Austria, a new initiative called Addendum has thrown its hat into the ring. Addendum, which produces a television feature (“In Context” on the private broadcaster ServusTV) as well as […]

Austria has dealt with its fair share of disinformation and accusations of “fake news” amid two recent, highly divisive elections: a presidential election in 2016 and parliamentary elections in October 2017, both notable for the successes of traditional outlier parties. The former saw the triumph of the former head of the Green party, while the […]

In recent years the Czech Republic has seen the launch of a number of official and private initiatives aimed at counteracting the spread of disinformation or “fake news”. One of the first efforts to systematically debunk false information was Hate Free Culture, which was founded amid the refugee crisis of 2015. Hate Free Culture is […]

In the Czech Republic, what is known as “alternative” news has become a successful industry, supported by the public’s low trust in traditional media. While journalists and media experts in the country cautioned that clear distinctions must be made among false content, opinionated stories, clickbait and propaganda, they agreed that the situation had become more […]