Global Fact, one of the biggest media conferences, will be held in Sarajevo next year. In June 2024, Sarajevo will host Global Fact 11, as announced on Monday by Poynter Institute for media studies (Florida, US).
GlobalFact is the world’s largest and most impactful fact-checking summit that was held in major centers and cities like London, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Rome, Cape Town, Oslo and Seul, bringing together more than 3.700 people from all over the world.
Sarajevo will be the first town in the Balkans to host Global Fact, where 500-600 media professionals and participants from the world of journalism, fact-checking, anti-disinformation, academia, information technologies and media studies. Previous notable speakers and participants include a Nobel lauerate, Rappler’s Maria Ressa (Filipinnes) and Pulitzer winning historian Anne Applebaum; Bill Adair, Knight Professor of Journalism at Duke University and one of the founders of IFCN, leading fact-checking newsrooms in major media organizations such as Washington post’s Glenn Kessler, Barbara Whitaker from Associated Press and many others. Global Fact has also regularly engaged representatives of major tech platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Google and others.
Discussions at the conference are centered on the universal challenges fact-checkers face today, such as upholding information integrity with artificial intelligence, tracking online disinformation campaigns and other topics of relevance for contemporary journalism.
Global Fact is organized by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), launched in 2015 by Poynter Institute. Local partner and the conference host is “Zašto ne”, a Sarajevo-based organization that runs two prominent fact-checking newsrooms, Istinomjer and Raskrinkavanje. Support for the conference also comes from the regional fact-checking network SEE Check, made up of Raskrinkavanje (BiH), Faktograf (Croatia), Raskrinkavanje (Montenegro), Raskrikavanje and Fake News Tragač (Serbia) and Razkrikavanje (Slovenia).
“Fact-checkers in Bosnia and the rest of the Balkans were founding members of the International Fact-Checking Network and have been tireless in their efforts to bring accurate, high-quality information to their communities,” said IFCN director Angie Drobnic Holan in a Monday announcement to signatories of the IFCN Code of Principles. “We are excited to bring fact-checkers around the world together to experience the beauty and history of Sarajevo.”
“We are incredibly excited to partner with IFCN in hosting GlobalFact in Sarajevo in 2024,” said Tijana Cvjetićanin, head of fact-checking at Zašto ne. “Our region has been at the forefront of fighting disinformation for years, and we are thrilled that our global community will meet here, at its very heart. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to share the spirit of solidarity and cooperation that we have nurtured through our regional network.”
IFCN brings together more than 140 organizations from 65 countries covering over 80 languages who are signatories of its Code of Principles. For its work on promotion of fact-based journalism, IFCN was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
More information on conference date, attendance and online viewing, is to follow. Global Fact 12, as is also announced, will be held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2025.