BBC launches new 60-journalist team to counteract fake news
Corporation Verify department aims to pull ‘back the curtain’ on how journalists arrive at the truth
The BBC has launched a unit to counteract fake news and “pull back the curtain” on its journalists’ work.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/17/bbc-verify-fake-news-corporation-trust-journalism/
BBC Verify will consist of 60 journalists, including Ros Atkins, the corporation’s analysis editor, and Marianna Spring, its disinformation correspondent.
They will appear regularly on BBC news programmes, explaining how they have investigated and fact-checked stories.
The team will use “a range of forensic and Open Source Intelligence capabilities that enable them to go beyond conventional newsroom techniques,” the BBC said.
The Verify “brand” will also be used on the BBC website. It was launched by Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, who made transparency one of her key priorities when she took the job last year.
“I’ve always said I want to ‘pull back the curtain’ on our journalism to show audiences the incredible hard work going on behind the scenes at BBC News to check and verify the information we share with our audiences,” Turness said.
“News consumers have told us that the more they know about the work our journalists do, the more they will know they can trust our journalism.”
She added: “BBC Verify is transparency in action - fact-checking, verifying video, countering disinformation, analysing data and explaining complex stories in the pursuit of truth.
Promise to consumers
“This is our promise to consumers - we understand that their trust must be earned and we will show them how we are doing that each and every day.”
Turness told a news summit this week: “I see our currency as trust - and in a world of fake news and disinformation, where consumers tell us they find it harder and harder to trust even brands like the BBC when we tell them what we know, we’ve got to shift that and where we’ve got to invest is in bringing investigative journalism into everyday news.”
The team will include members of the World Service disinformation team, the monitoring disinformation team and the user generated content team. Lindsay McCoy, currently deputy editor of the One O’Clock, Six O’Clock and Ten O’Clock news bulletins, will be BBC Verify’s executive editor.
Richard Burgess, director of news content, said: “Lindsay is a widely respected, strong editorial leader. I’m delighted she’ll be at the helm of BBC Verify - helping to set the standard in transparent and verified journalism people can trust.”
The BBC has itself been the target of fake news. Last year, Russian propagandists created a video, falsely using BBC branding, to blame Ukraine for an attack on the Kramatorsk railway station.
Prior to that, a clip reporting the outbreak of nuclear war between Russian and Nato forces was circulated online, stamped with the BBC logo and appearing to be broadcast from a BBC studio.
Related Topics
BBC, Media and Telecoms industry, Fake news
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