“INDEX, founded in France in 2020, is a not-for-profit, independent expertise agency. We specialise in the use of open-source investigation, audiovisual analysis, and 3D digital reconstruction to monitor and report on alleged violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Our core mission is to pursue truth and accountability by producing independent expert reports and fact-checking analyses on cases of public concern. Our investigations bring together a diverse network of independent journalists, researchers, videographers, engineers, architects, and lawyers.

In just three years, INDEX has evolved from a grassroots initiative to a reference organisation for thorough independent investigations into cases of police violence. Amid growing concerns about abuses of power by public authorities in France and Europe, the increasing demand for our services from media, NGOs, and civil society collectives highlights the urgent need to expand our capabilities. With the support of EMIF’s “”Boosting Fact-Checking Activities in Europe”” programme, INDEX will significantly scale up its operations. This includes increasing our team size to handle a higher volume of investigations and extend our reach. During the project, we aim to broaden our fact-checking efforts to address critical, underreported issues such as the repression of environmental movements, border violence, and the rise of far-right extremism.

By expanding and diversifying our investigative output, we will promote the dissemination of our innovative digital fact-checking methods across the European news landscape. Our ultimate goal is to contribute to a well-informed European public, resilient against misinformation and capable of holding public authorities accountable for their actions and statements.”

This project tackles the issue of climate change with a focus on false perceptions, mis- and disinformation claims, trends and narratives around the topic.

It aims at scaling up the impact of “A Fuoco”, our weekly newsletter (in Italian) entirely dedicated to climate change and related mis- and disinformation. The newsletter was launched in August 2023 by two Italian independent media organizations focused on fact-checking and reliable information (Facta.news and Slow News), with seed funding from EMIF.

Building on the successes of “A Fuoco”, which in six months of activity has overcome expectations in terms of reach and impact, this project strives to sustain the delivery of accurate and timely information about the climate crisis to target audiences, while also focusing on equipping them with “antibodies” from being vulnerable to misinformation on highly debated environmental issues.

Activities will focus on (a) repurposing the newsletter contents into new multimedia products and activities aimed at empowering target groups, (b) creating a stronger and more engaged community around the project, while also (c) giving continuity to the weekly publication.

Main project deliverables include:
1. The publication of 44 new issues of the weekly newsletter, with an expected raise in number of subscribers from 4.100 to 8.000;
2. The launch of a brand new podcast on climate-related disinformation, with an average of 2.000 downloads per each podcast episode;
3. The launch of a brand new video mini-series on climate-related reporting, with 10-15.000 visualizations for the whole series;
4. The launch of a workshop series on climate reporting, with the direct involvement of at least 450 professional journalists and students of schools of journalism.

This project will scale-up the Open Source Munitions portal, the first ever open source platform to help journalists, researchers and civilians in conflict-affected countries to fact-check evidence of munitions used in today’s battlefields.
Understanding the impact, use and nature of common munitions has until now been knowledge held by an elite group of munitions experts – largely inaccessible to smaller local newsrooms, non-specialists and freelance open source investigators.
In conflict zones, this lack of information has resulted in the proliferation of mis- and disinformation – with the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza particularly impacted. This, in turn, has led to distrust in information and growing fake news. Fact checking on munitions use can help stem this.
The project will scale up the Open Source Munitions Portal over 12 months. The development will include additional functionality, additional conflicts, a more transparent verification methodology and a community-focussed image selection and verification process – as well as thousands of more images. This will all be a direct aid to fact checkers globally, including in particular in local newsrooms. It will also add a tailored Ukrainian language version of the tool to allow it to be of use for civilians – with particular focus on the types of unexplored ordinance that typically harms civilians. 

CALYPSO GR (Collaborative AnaLYsis and exPosure of diSinformatiOn) will offer a space for Greek fact-checkers to work, cooperate and expand their knowledge while using cutting-edge technology. CALYPSO GR will create a gamified crowdsourcing environment for citizens, fact-checkers and domain experts to collaborate to combat disinformation in Greece. The general public will submit suspected cases of disinformation, so that the dedicated fact-checking team of CALYPSO GR will verify them and therefore expose disinformation in real time. CALYPSO GR’s aim is to significantly decrease the impact of fake news in Greece, while offering job opportunities and training to fact-checkers. The participants will benefit from an innovative platform, designed and developed for the project. Lastly, CALYPSO GR as a project will generate media literacy material, research, workshops and communication activities that will further increase its impact and sustainability.

The Project FEED | Fact-Checking Food, Diets, and Eating Behavior will aim to contribute to tackling pressing issues related to disinformation and misinformation by improving the detection and understanding of misinformation narratives in individual and public health.
The activities of this project will be an addition to Viral’s current activities and will focus on fact-checking food, diets, and eating behaviour, with the goal of making populations more resilient to the corrosive effects of disinformation in these matters.
Food and nutrition are part of a complex societal challenge (due to socio-economic and socio-cultural reasons) and are also very popular topics on social media, about which a lot of misinformation and disinformation circulates.
Disinformation about food, nutrition, diets, and eating behaviour shared on social media and uncritically consumed by a population with little scientific literacy and little health literacy has clear risks to health (individual and public) and the economy.
Viral has developed its own methodology that covers the selection process (the processes by which the applicant chooses what claims to evaluate), research methods (the basic techniques and types of sources that the applicant most commonly uses when conducting research on claims, as well as the official rules and editorial policies that govern its approaches), and claim evaluation (the systems and processes by which the applicant establishes the veracity of a claim).
In addition to these criteria, the FEED project will have a stricter selection process, as only topics related to food, nutrition, and prominent individual and global health issues will be considered.

Disinformation erodes trust in politics, media, and elections, thereby undermining democracy. Croatia, facing three elections this year, lacks sufficient efforts to counter false information. At Oštro (Slovenia), fact-checking is used to develop critical thinking abilities, research skills, and high professional standards. Experienced editors and journalists from Oštro (Slovenia) will mentor Oštro (Croatia) in the development of its own fact-checking project, Raskrinkavanje.hr.
Raskrinkavanje.hr will fact-check public statements, media content, and election candidates’ claims, starting with the upcoming Presidential election, addressing a gap in predominant fact-checking efforts with a significant focus on disinformation shared on Facebook. Oštro (Slovenia) will scale up its model, including the embedded incubator for future investigative reporters, to Croatian needs.
Launching before the Presidential elections in late 2024, the project will combat manipulative campaign activities, including bot usage and AI-generated false content. Rapidly evolving disinformation techniques challenge Croatian voters’ abilities to make informed decisions. Project objectives include:

• equipping Croatian voters and the public with accurate, in-depth information on important topics, developments, and heated public debates
• raising public awareness of local disinformation and empowering diverse readerships
• developing fact-checking and future investigative reporters in Croatia.

The project aims to reduce disinformation’s impact, foster knowledge-sharing among the two fact-checking organizations, and incubate future investigative journalists, while upholding high professional standards. In the EU context, an additional trained newsroom enhances efforts to uphold European democratic values, promote solidarity among member states, and safeguard policy and institutional integrity.