7th November 2017

Radio Praha: Demagog.cz and the art of political fact-checking

Demagog.cz have built a reputation as the leading Czech political fact-checking group. But how does their approach to evaluating the accuracy of politicians’ claims differ from the work of similar organisations in other countries? And what happens when political parties challenge their assessments? Radio Praha's Ian Willoughby discussed these questions and more recently with Demagog.cz expert Lenka Chudomelová. 

“We fact-check Czech politicians, elected ones, and we always just fact-check the factual statements that they’ve made. 

“So we have to first choose statements that are only factual, because we can’t evaluate values. 

“We can’t say if the minimum wage is OK or if it should be higher – we can just say what the actual money is for the minimum wage. 

“And we want the audience, or readers, to make good decisions, to be informed about our politicians and to choose well.” 

 

What are you fact-checking? I guess interviews? Speeches also? 

“We do mainly interviews or debates. Like for example Otázky Václava Moravce, the Questions of Václav Moravec, which is broadcast by Czech Television. 

“We sometimes do also some things on social networks, like on Facebook and so on, but that’s not so common.” 

 

Full story and podcast.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic