EBU teams up with Lie Detectors
European Broadcasting Union goes to school: Geneva journalists of public service media alliance join drive for news literacy with Lie Detectors
Brussels / Geneva – 3 May 2023 – Journalists of the European Broadcasting Union are teaming up withnews literacy project Lie Detectors to bring greater understanding of online information and the work ofjournalists to schools.
From May to December 2023, EBU journalists will visit schools in and around Geneva, deliveringinteractive sessions in French and English for 10-15 year-olds on how to fact-check their social mediachannels and how professional journalism works.
"We are extremely keen to engage in a conversation with our local community about how to navigateonline information with care, and how to recognise serious and fact-based journalistic content," said LizCorbin, Deputy Director and Head of News at the EBU.
"Everyone needs the tools to be a journalist, particularly now, when so many of us are gathering ourinformation independently online. And who better to pass on these tools than journalists themselves.
"It's very good news that EBU journalists are making the teaching of news literacy part of their service tothe public,” said Lie Detectors Executive Director Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck.
Lie Detectors campaign, which is funded by the Wyss Foundation and its Swiss founder Hansjörg Wyss, isactive in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland and Switzerland. It has trained more than 300
journalists with an approach recommended by EU media literacy experts and arranges more than 1,000annual school visits. Journalist visits are in person and use an approach tested with children, educatorsand psychologists, at no cost to schools.
“The war in Ukraine and the long shadow of COVID highlight to us all the role that critical media literacymust play in stemming disinformation and the havoc disinformation plays with democracy and humanhealth,” said von Reppert-Bismarck. “The EBU’s support is significant at a time when organisations suchas the UN and OECD debate the importance of integrating critical media literacy into all curricula.”
“The workshops deal with a highly topical and important topic. Pupils learn how they can criticallyevaluate information and recognise disinformation in a digital media landscape that has becomeconfusing. At the same time, the journalists provide an exciting insight into their work," said EBU'sCorbin.
The European Broadcasting Union is the world's leading alliance of public service media (PSM) and hometo the Eurovision News Exchange, a unique network that provides PSM newsrooms with round-the-clockaccess to live and global news stories.
Lie Detectors is active in English, French, German and Polish and advises EU institutions and
governments on smart policies to stem disinformation. It advocates for the systematic inclusion andintegration of news literacy into the curricula in schools and universities of teacher education. As amember of the Erasmus+ initiative’s Friends of eTwinning campaign, Lie Detectors also deliversjournalist-led teacher-training.