The spread of disinformation is a growing concern for all journalists. Over the last few years, the Flemish government has also funded several fact-checking projects. All interviewed journalists unanimously insisted that “doing their job” was the best defence against disinformation. They strongly believed in researching and double-checking facts before publishing them as stories, and considered fighting against misinformation one of the integral parts of their daily work. Some journalists noted that checking sources from social media could sometimes be tricky, especially with viral videos allegedly about current events which may already be years old. In particular, senior journalists hesitantly admitted being occasionally overwhelmed by the influx of online information and sources. In general, sources from social media are less relied upon than direct sources in government, politicians themselves and their spokespersons, or established organisations and recognised groups and associations in Flanders’s small, yet very developed and active, civil society.
There are two notable examples of fact-checking and measures dealing with misinformation, predominantly from online sources. First, Factcheck Vlaanderen,[i] an organisation financially and logistically supported by the (defunct as of 2020) Flemish Journalism Fund, public broadcaster VRT, a few universities and colleges contributing with their artificial-intelligence expertise, as well as the Belgian press agency, Belga. They regularly publish fact-checks on their official website, and as of May 2020, heavily focused on reporting the true facts behind the ease of Covid-19 restriction measures in Belgian society.
A second example is the so-called DDT (Data Disinformation and Technology) unit of the above-mentioned public broadcaster. This unit supports all other VRT journalists, specifically regarding disinformation and data journalism, with a highly trained staff active across social media as well as the dark web.
