In 2021, after nearly 18 years of translating the Arabic media, Mideastwire.com’s core editorial team - Nicholas Noe, Mirella Dagher, Zeina Rouheib, Mohamed-Dhia Hammami and Ibrahim Jouhari, launched our Value Checking effort. Mideastwire.com's original purpose has therefore expanded: To reliably translate key articles appearing in the Arabic media but also to regularly provide objective, fact-based Value Checks in Arabic and English for some of the pieces that we think our subscribers, as well as the public at large, will benefit from in furthering their own understanding of the Middle East and beyond. Indeed, as in most other parts of the global media-scape, the Arabic media also suffers from misinformation, a lack of context and poor transparency, especially when allowing readers to easily understand the sources for various claims.
Our Value Checking Mission
listen to Arab voices directly without a filter
economic
opinion
Our Effort & Our Approach:
Our Commitment to accurate sourcing. As briefly stated above, our Fact Checkers strive to clearly and substantively identify the source of all significant evidence used in their Fact Checks, providing relevant links where the source is available online, with the hope that our readers, as one of the core IFCN principles lays out, could replicate the work we have done and arrive at similar conclusions. In cases where identifying a human source would compromise the source’s personal security, our Fact Checkers provide as much detail as we can, given the source’s safety concerns and request for anonimity, in order to let the reader accurately weigh the relevancy of the source as well as any possible interests or conflicts which the source mighht have. We further emphasize that our Fact Checkers attempt to use primary, and not secondary, sources of evidence wherever suitable primary sources are available. Where suitable primary sources are not available but would nevertheless be pertinent for assessing the claim, our Fact Checkers explain the use and need of a secondary source(s). Our Fact Checkers also check all key elements of claims against more than one named source of evidence except where one source is the only source relevant on the topic at hand.
Ask Our Team To Fact Check A Claim. We welcome suggestions for Fact Checking. Please make sure the print/online media report, broadcast or social media content adheres to at least three requirements: 1) The claim(s) are assertions of fact and not opinion; 2) the claim(s) do not involve predictions about the future; and 3) the individual or organization making the claim(s) has a demonstrably wide reach and/or a significant status in the media, commercial/non-commercial sectors and/or in the public sector. Email us suggestions directly at info@arabmediafactcheck.org. Please include all relevant links as well as a short summary of why you believe the content is ripe for Fact Checking.
Correct Us. We are committed to an honest and open corrections policy. Please email info@arabmediafactcheck.org if you notice any typo and/or if you disagree with our Fact Check in any of its dimensions. All substantive submissions will be evaluated by the Editor, the Fact Checker who wrote the article and one other Fact Checker who didn’t participate in the Fact Check in question. If two out of the three agree to a substantive alteration, the Fact Check will be revised online and in our database and the original correction requestor will be notified of our action along with the reasons underlying the alteration(s). Furthermore, if you identify a substantive correction(s) (i.e. those that are beyond typos which substantively alter our Fact Check), we will explain the changes we have made in the text and mark the date that the text was altered - all before the opening paragraph of the Fact Check so our readers can immediately identify and understand the correction(s).
In order to be as clear as possible with our readers about our track record, we constantly update the number of times we have gotten Fact Checks wrong and changed the assessment determination.
Our primary goal over the course of 2022 is to produce at least four, high-quality Fact Checking articles each month, freely available, with an increasing emphasis on Fact Checking media that specifically pertains to: a) Elections & Democracy, b) Violent Conflicts & Social Unrest and c) Health, Environmental Degradation & Socio-Economic Livelihood. We further aim to launch our social media & mailing list effort by the Summer of 2022 - thus substantially increasing our reach - as well as debut our fully functional English and Arabic language website (at a minimum replacing the current PDF posting of Arabic articles with fully HTML-enabled pages). Although we will continue to focus on Fact Checking the Arabic media, we will also periodically include Fact Checks of English-language media that concerns Western Asia and North Africa.
Our commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and a rigorous methodology. As a Fact Checking team, we strive to adhere to the International Fact Checking Network’s (IFCN) Code of Principles (available here), including that:
Search our Fact Check articles
May 23, 2022
May 14, 2022
ھل كان المواطنون اللبنانیون من ذوي الاحتیاجات الخاصة "ممنوعین من ممارسة حقوقھم" في ما یتعلق بالاقتراع؟
May 10, 2022
ھل صحیح بأن صندوق اقتراع للمغتربین اللبنانیین كان "یتن ّقل" بین حقائب السفر في مطار أوریغون؟
April 26, 2022
April 14, 2022
ھل قصفت روسیا مدرسة في مدینة خاركیف الاوكرانیة؟
April 12, 2022
February 23, 2022
ھل صحیح انھ ت ّمت قرصنة موقع الامم المتحدة لاخفاء رسالة كان لبنان قد أرسلھا حول حدوده المائیة مع اسرائیل؟
February 12, 2022
February 4, 2022
ھل صار لقاح كوفید-19 عبر بخاخ الانف متاحا؟
ھل صحیح أن الجیش اللبناني لا یواكب دور ّیات قوات "الیونیفیل" في جنوب لبنان وھل مواكبتھ للقوات الدولیة ملزمة؟
ھل یتم اطلاق النار على الطائرات فوق مطار بیروت؟
January 24, 2022
ھل صحیح أن السفارة الأمیركیة تتدخل في الانتخابات النیابیة المقبلة؟
January 14, 2022
January 24, 2022
January 8, 2022
December 31, 2021
December 22, 2021
ھل صنفت المملكة العربیة السعودیة اللبنانیین الى فئات مل ّونة تمھیدا لترحیلھم؟
December 19, 2021
December 15, 2021
November 7, 2021
ھل غادر الطاقم الدبلوماسي السعودي لبنان؟
November 7, 2021
November 6, 2021
November 4, 2021
ھل أصدر أمین عام "حزب الله" فتوى تدعو اللبنانیات للزواج من مقاتلین حوثیین؟
October 11, 2021
October 26, 2021
October 11, 2021
October 5, 2021