Covid-19 : Track the facts is a project to fight disinformation about the virus. In the time of fake news and social media, it's not always easy to separate the real from the false news that circulate around coronavirus.

How to verify information? How to debunk fake news? What are the good moves to adopt to avoid disinformation? Our journalists address the issue. Their objective is to detect disinformation and to give you all the tools so you don't fall into the fake news trap!

COVID-19 : Track the facts is a project established by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ) in partnership with the Agence Science-Presse (ASP).

This project is funded by the Government of Canada.

The team
 

The team is formed of journalists, infographists, social media managers, and coordinators from both organizations.

Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec is a non-profit organization that brings together about 1800 journalists from more than 250 written and web media in Quebec.

Since 1969, it defends freedom of press and the public right to information. The FPJQ intervenes every time that freedom of press is threatened. It makes the voices of journalists heard everywhere it is necessary : in parliamentary committees, in front of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), in town councils, and ahead of judges, police and public organizations when the communication policies hinder the work of journalists. As a nonprofit organization, the FPJQ is the principal and the most representative journalistic organization in Canada.

Since 2017, the FPJQ sponsors the program #30sec to check it out to fight against disinformation. A few journalists who are also members of the FPJQ offer training to second cycle high school students on a volunteer basis, in order to give them the skill to catch fake news and to better understand their devastating impact in society. The objective of this workshop is to sharpen their critical sense, whichever information medium they consult. The FPJQ wishes, parallel to this fake news training, to heighten awareness to the role of a responsible press and to better promote the work of journalists. Since 2019, the training is offered for the greater public and given in CEGEPs, universities and librairies across the province.

L'Agence Science-Presse is a nonprofit independent media established in Montreal in 1978. Its mission is to bring scientific news to the media. It is the only science press agency in Canada and the only one in all of French-speaking countries that speaks directly to mass media rather than to businesses.

The principal publication of the Agence for a long time was the bulletin Hebdo-Science et technologie. News outlets that are subscribed to its press service could reuse the entire content, which consisted in journalistic articles and news on different topics related to science.

But since 1996, the website of the Agence became quite important, to the point where it overtook the bulletin : more people now read the news from Agence Science-Presse directly on its website. The website of the Agence is visited by almost one million visitors each year, and its presence is strong on social media (more than 20 000 followers on Twitter).

L'Agence Science-Presse, also specialized in media education, fights against fake news with its section Le Détecteur de rumeurs, and also produces the content for a program of fight against disinformation, #30sec to check it out.