Fact Checking the Arab Media - Providing independent context, facts and analysis for the public

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.

In August 2021, after nearly 18 years of translating the Arabic media, four Mideastwire.com team members – Nicholas Noe, Mohamed-Dhia Hammami, Marlene Khalife and Ibrahim Jouhari – launched Arabmediafactcheck.org as a separate effort under Mideastwire.com LLC in order to exclusively focus on providing independent context, facts and analysis in Arabic and English for some of the media content that we think the public at large will benefit from in furthering their own understanding of Western Asia and North Africa.

Indeed, as in most other parts of the global media-scape, the Arabic media, as well as international media covering Western Asia and North Africa, also suffers from misinformation, a lack of context and poor transparency, especially when allowing readers to easily understand the sources for various claims.

Through this effort, we hope to address at least one aspect of a global disconnect that continues to threaten a wide spectrum of socio-political and economic relationships, both here in the region and beyond.

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 you might have 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.

Until today, we have changed < 0 > of our Fact Checks.

In our Fact Checks, we adequately characterize the position of a source and whether the source might have a specific interest in the subject matter or where, in general, the reader might reasonably conclude those interests could influence the accuracy of the evidence provided;
We use the same rigorous standards of evidence and judgment for equivalent claims regardless of who made the claim;
We do not advocate or take policy positions on the issues we Fact Check;
We insist that any member of our team must not currently be a registered member of any political party or advocacy group, a candidate of a party or an elected or appointed government official;
Although members of our team can and do have strong views on an array of subjects, we insist that any of our Fact Checkers who has publicly expressed strong views on the subject being Fact Checked either removes themselves from the Fact Check or co-authors the Fact Check with another member of our team and also publishes an accurate characterization of their strongly held public views at the end of the Fact Check;
We strive to make sure that we do not unduly concentrate our Fact Checking on any one side of an issue. In this regards, at our end-of-month team meeting, we collectively review the previous month's fact checks as a whole. If any emphasis is seen by any one team member, we use that finding to guide our fact check selections in the coming month in order to re-balance;
We only Fact Check a print/online media report, a broadcast or social media content that adheres to 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 finally, 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;
Where possible, our Fact Checkers attempt to contact the author of the claim being Fact Checked in order to seek supporting evidence, noting that: 1) this is often not possible with online claims, 2) if the person who makes the claim fails to reply in a timely way this should not impede the Fact Check, 3) if a speaker - when connected - then adds caveats to the claim, the fact-checker should be free to continue with checking the original claim and 4) Fact Checkers may not wish to contact the person who made the claim for safety or other legitimate security- or legal-related reasons.

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.

Until today, we have changed < 0 > of our Fact Checks.

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:

While there is a broad range of Arabic language media outlets reporting stories from and about the Middle East, there is currently no affordable and reliable means for English speakers to gain access to this content. As a result, many English speaking businesspersons, students, journalists and others who have an interest in the affairs of the region are largely unaware of what the Middle East media is covering and how they are covering these stories. Mideastwire.com aims to close this gap by offering a daily menu of translations covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the media of the 22 Arab countries and the Arab Diaspora.

Through these efforts, we hope to address at least some of the elements of a global disconnect that continue to threaten a wide spectrum of socio-political and economic relationships, both here in the region and beyond.

It should also be noted that, since our founding in 2005, Mideastwire.com is wholly funded by the content license fees paid by individuals and organizations. As such, there is no government, commercial or non-profit support, an aspect that we believe provides a relatively independent platform for understanding.

For more information about our status as a New York State registered LLC, please email info@arabmediafactcheck.org or view or registration via the public inquiry.