Taiwan FactCheck Center

Taiwan FactCheck Center is jointly founded by the Association for Quality Journalism and Taiwan Media Watch. It is organized for non-profit purpose. The objectives of the Center are to conduct fact checks on information relevant to public affairs as well as to improve the information ecology and news quality of Taiwan.

The Center’s fact checking operation is based on the principles of openness, transparency, rigor and accountability. All fact checks are built on verified material. The fact checking process follows a rigorous review methodology. The daily fact checking items are selected at the fact checking meeting. The fact checked report should be reviewed by at least three fact checking personnel before its publication.

The topics of fake news, either under media coverage or online rumors, verified by the Center cover a wide range of public interest themes, including health care, environmental ecology, educational debates, gender issues, business activities, and government policies. On political issues, the subjects of fact checking are selected across different ideological positions. The Center strives to give each position equal attention even though the Center does not attempt to set an absolute balance in terms of numbers of items fact checked among the varied positions. To avoid a significant imbalance, besides reviewing subjects during the initial selection process, the Center continuously monitors the statistics of the fact checked cases involving political affairs among various positions in the weekly meetings.

Taiwan FactCheck Center clearly lays out its correction policy which is available on the Center’s website. The policy states how the public can comment on the fact checked report, how the center deals with the public opinion internally, and how the center issues its corrections.

The Center’s funding mainly comes from donations contributed by enterprises, foundations, and individuals. The Center posts its donations acceptance policy on the website, stipulating that “to maintain independence of operations, the Center does not accept donations from governments, political parties, and politicians.” Also, the Center exercises its editorial control independently and is not influenced by donors.