From 26 till 31 August in 2018 40 professional journalists and editors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan
learned the basics and practices of fact-checking and international news coverage.
Training participants were selected among the major media of Central Asia – Informburo.kz, Sputnik.kz, “Radio“
Azattyk ”, kaktus.media, holanews.kz, today.kz, Kursiv.kz,“ Week of the UK ”,“ Komsomolskaya Pravda in
Kazakhstan ”, politmer.kg, saresep.kg,“ AprilTV ”,“ Yntymak TV ”and others.
Local and international coaches: Christiaan Tribert (senior journalist-investigator and head coach at Bellingcat, the
Netherlands), Marek Beckerman (project leader and coach at Albany Associates, United Kingdom), Pavel Bannikov
(chief editor of FactCheck.kz, Kazakhstan), Victoria Li (journalist and coach of FactCheck.kz/OYLA, Kazakhstan)
demonstrated on specific cases importance of fact-checking techniques in our post-truth era.
The training covered the issues of methodology and tools for fact-checking, checking information sources and
digital technologies in the preparation of news, visualization of verified information, coverage of international news
and diversification of information sources.
Participants’ opinion about the training:
Maria Gareeva, journalist informburo.kz, Kazakhstan said: “Factcheck and working with open data – this is what I
love most in my profession. Therefore, it was great to see how professionals use familiar tools. With the help of
information available to all, they do simply amazing things: from exposing simple fakes to global investigations. As
many as journalists possible should learn that and should work for making our information field richer and more
interesting. ”
Jamshed Maruf, journalist and editor-in-chief of Radio Payvand, Tajikistan, told: “We can say that journalists used
to be involved in “fact-checking” too. For example, they checked information from 2-3 sources. But the training on
fact-checking for professional journalists of Central Asia made it possible for each journalist to learn in detail and in
detail to expand his knowledge of theory and skills in the practice of fact-checking. Journalists were working on
text, photos, videos, and open data and on Google maps. ”
Adelaide Auespekova, journalist for HOLA News, Kazakhstan added: “As a journalist, it was useful for me to talk
with professionals of my field. I didn’t know that you could do a lot of work just by using open data. It was
interesting how fake information was revealed using publicly available tools. I hope that many journalists will be
able to gain such experience. ”
The training was organized in the framework of a regional project implemented by PF "International Center of
Journalism MediaNet" in Kazakhstan and PF "Center for Media Development" in Kyrgyzstan in collaboration with

Albany Associates International and IREX Europe. The project activities to improve the quality of news journalism
and general media literacy in Central Asia are carried out with the support of the British Embassies in Bishkek and
Astana.