• Priority Area Boosting Fact-checking Activities in Europe
• Funding Round / Action Types 5th Funding Round – Scale-up Projects
• Year 2023, 2024
• Country Netherlands
• Project Status Ongoing

The F.R.E.I.H.E.I.T Project’s overarching objective will be to capitalise on the previous TRUE INFO project, develop new and highly relevant content by broadening both the geographical and topical/thematic scope whilst keeping abreast of technological and policy developments around disinformation and building synergies with specialised professionals beyond Europe’s borders.

The project’s specific objectives are the following:

• Whilst further sustaining/producing fact-checked coverage on the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, include key countries of Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood, in the belief Russian, but also other foreign interference to be threatening and undermining their path to democracy.
• Raising awareness on topics of public interest that may be potential targets of disinformation, such as energy, agriculture, security and migration, which are highly relevant for both Europe and the Eastern Neighbourhood.
• Empower a diverse and complementary range of freelance journalists from these regions and contribute to creating a network of fact-checkers by fostering the exchange of practices between media, academia and civil society.

EURACTIV will produce 5 categories of activities, one of them being The Capitals, EURACTIV’s flagship newsletter. Six Special editions of the newsletter will be produced, focusing on the Eastern Neighbourhood and including contributions by six freelance journalists from these countries. These will cover disinformation in the Eastern Neighbourhood, particularly driven by Russian propaganda, in four areas: agriculture, energy, migration and security.

The project will conclude itself with a Final Forum, aimed at gathering freelance journalists, aspiring fact checkers, civil society, and European policymakers and at contributing to the creation of a network of freelancers involved in the fight against disinformation. This event will be followed by a report including three articles providing policy recommendations on the topic.

During the project, there will be ongoing fact-checking and social media promotion.