Russia's TASS invites media to join global fact-checking network
The Global Fact-Checking Network, which TASS co-founded, already includes more than 130 experts from 55 countries.
TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov invited news outlets and independent experts to join a global fact-checking network on Saturday, Russia's state news agency TASS reported.
Kondrashov made the appeal at the opening ceremony of the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing, urging news agencies, TV channels, publications and individual journalists to take part.
TASS co-founded the Global Fact-Checking Network, which Kondrashov said already brings together more than 130 experts from 55 countries.
Kondrashov said the network uses artificial intelligence, among other tools, to flag unreliable material early in its spread and to trace fakes back to their origin.
Membership is free, and Kondrashov said applicants face no political conditions or any "ideological reliability check."
He said the network operates under a Code of Responsible Fact Checking and rests on "respect for facts, verifiability of sources."
Kondrashov called disinformation "one of the most serious threats to the modern information space," saying it is used to erode trust in state institutions.
He noted that media capacity to counter fake news varies widely, since large international agencies have many bureaus and archives while smaller outlets often cannot afford them.
"Countering fake news should not be just an internal matter for individual editorial offices," Kondrashov said.
The 7th World Media Summit, which focuses on cooperation among media outlets in the age of artificial intelligence, runs in Beijing from Nov. 5 to 9 and is organized by the Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing government.
About 500 representatives from nearly 330 media outlets, think tanks, government agencies, the United Nations and other international bodies from 112 countries and regions are taking part in the summit.
A TASS delegation headed by Kondrashov is attending, and the agency sits on the summit's presidium, which has been held since 2009.
TASS was also among the nine media organizations that initiated the summit.
