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Agence France-Presse (AFP) is partnering with the GlobalFact summit, organised by the Poynter Institute – coordinator of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) – in cooperation with the NGO Zašto ne. The 11th edition of the event is being held this year in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

‘Defending Truth in the Age of Misinformation’ is the theme of the conversation between Phil Chetwynd, AFP's Global News Director, and Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. 

The discussion, with an audience of hundreds of journalists and fact-checkers from around the world, will explore how to defend democracy amid dense electoral contexts and major crises, while preserving journalistic ethics and independence. 

"Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems," said Maria Ressa in an article published by Zašto ne in May, announcing her participation at the summit. 

 "Democracies need a reliable and rigorous media ecosystem to maintain a durable and shared connection with citizens – news agencies are at the heart of this system and have a significant role and responsibility. Recent crises, such as the Israel-Hamas conflict and the accompanying waves of misinformation, remind us of this every day," added Phil Chetwynd. 

Even in democracies, misinformation can originate from official sources. That's why Katarina Subasic, Deputy Head of Digital Investigation for Europe, will represent AFP in a panel titled ‘When Politicians Lie: The Risks of 'Official Misinformation’’. She will join representatives from other fact-checking organisations such as Lupa, Chequeado, FactCheck.org, and Lakmusz. 

Combatting misinformation also involves exploring the challenges and opportunities presented by AI. Denis Teyssou, Head of AFP's Medialab, will lead a practical workshop for fact-checkers interested in new tools developed by his team for verifying AI-generated images and audio content, within the European project Vera.ai and the continuation of the InVid-WeVerify plugin.

The latter is used globally by over 130,000 journalists, fact-checkers, human rights defenders, teachers, researchers, and OSINT investigators. Available in seven languages (English, French, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Arabic, and German), the plugin runs on all Chrome-based browsers, including Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Opera, Brave and Arc.

The recent implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) legislation in Europe offers new perspectives for regulating platforms in their relationships with users and the content they generate and share. Marie Bohner, Head of Development and Partnerships for Digital Investigation at AFP, and a member of the Governance Body of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), will lead a discussion on the implications of this legislation. She will be joined by Carlos Hernández-Echevarría, Chair of the EFCSN Governance Body and Deputy Director of Maldita.es, Dr Ľuboš Kukliš, an expert in platform regulation and governance, responsible for DSA implementation at the European Commission, Alberto Rabbachin, Deputy Director of DG Connect at the European Commission, and Dr Vincent Couronne, Director and co-founder of Les Surligneurs.