Learning fact-checking amid Georgia's 'foreign agent' law

In journalism – as in life – you often can’t convince someone they’re wrong by simply telling them so. Logic, reason and facts should buttress arguments. Humility doesn’t hurt, either.

Over the years working in media – as a reporter and as a communications and policy studies teacher – Tamar Kintsurashvili has both practiced this herself and taught others how to do so with calm and diligence. She has explored the nature of hate speech and how to counter it. She has helped others become confidently literate in reading news and detecting propaganda.

"This is mostly a matter of learning by doing," she said. "And also learning by teaching."

Today, Kintsurashvili, who is the executive director of the Media Development Foundation (MDF) in Tbilisi, collaborates with DW Akademie in bringing fact-checking expertise and knowledge transfer to journalists around Georgia. MDF offers disinformation trainings through its Myth Detector Lab, which was started in 2017 in cooperation with DW Akademie.

The Myth Detector Lab in Georgia has trained hundreds of young people to debunk disinformation they see online. The Lab then publishes their findings. Here, Ukrainian students train in fact-checking in Tbilsi.

Gradually, colleagues have come to describe Kintsurashvili as the nation’s expert on fact-checking. She herself adheres to the mantra, "Discover truth yourself."

Analytical thinking and journalism

That phrase is also the title of the fact-checking project the Media Development Foundation has shared with DW Akademie since 2017. In 2023, the platform grew to service the region by accepting participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan. Some 300 students – from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine — have participated in trainings and produced twice that many articles using fact-checking skills.

Earlier this month, Kintsurashvili organized a fact-checking conference for DW Akademie. She noted that participants had professional backgrounds as varied as law, medicine and international relations, "but all overlap with the analytical thinking required in journalism."

Around 300 students – from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine — have participated in Media Development Foundation trainings in Georgia and then later produced twice that many articles using fact-checking skills they had learned.

"Tamar is herself a focus of the government and is under attack," said Dr. Katrin Wehry, DW Akademie’s program director for Georgia, because “she is the expert on disinformation and fact-checking in the country.”

But with the idea of strength in numbers, Kintsurashvili points out in her trainings that everyone must take responsibility for not only deducing truth but also being mindful to not, wittingly or unwittingly, spread lies. Social networks depend on content sharing, meaning the power lies in the user’s hands.

"Whether or not it’s intentional, it’s important to look at our habits," she said.

Surprising Findings

The war in Ukraine, the COVID pandemic, elections around the world, migration, the Israel-Hamas war, fraud in Georgia, conspiracy theories and the use of artificial intelligence in photography – these are but some of the urgent current events the workshop participants have approached in practicing checking what is factual and what not. Their work has been published by the Poynter Institute in the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, as well as EUvsDisinfo.

Irakli Iagorashvili, a Myth Detector Lab alumni and now a contributor to its multimedia platform, has researched pro-Kremlin influences in Georgia. He is also interested in historical disinformation.

"I start by using keywords to collect all available articles on the topic from the internet or archives," he said in describing how he looks for false information.

"Sometimes, I also have to contact individuals, as online sources on Georgian history are quite limited. After gathering the information, I analyze it and begin writing."

At Myth Detector, he said, writers must reference sources, but with a frequent scarcity of historical sources, this can be a challenge.

Kintsurashvili points out in her trainings that everyone is responsible for searching out the truth, especially when lies spread so easily online. Social networks depend on content sharing, meaning the power lies in the user’s hands.

"The most enjoyable part of the process is when you discover something new in the archives, old newspapers, or journals — something that was believed to be different — and you want to share it with everyone," said Iagorashvili. "I’ve had many such surprising findings and I always strive to write high-quality articles to reach as many people as possible."

He still receives meaningful edits and questions from Kintsurashvili.

"She taught me how to organize research, how to carry out all procedures properly and effectively present the results to the audience," he said.

Doppelgängers

Kintsurashvili said that often, non-Western readers or listeners assume that Western media are more credible. The DW, Radio Liberty and Voice of America logos, she added, have been misappropriated to spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine. She and her colleagues therefore teach students to track the transparency of sources, including IP addresses.

"At issue is transparency and using methods to consider different actors that aim to manipulate," she said. "In this sense, cross-country exchanges are very useful to understand the modus operandi of different so-called Doppelgängers."

Georgia’s transparency of foreign influence – or "foreign agent" – law essentially pressures NGOs and media outlets considered to be "carrying the interests of a foreign power" to regularly provide the Georgian government with financial statements about their activities. It also, however, affects local Georgian journalists who are mostly dependent on Western donors. Meanwhile, the Media Development Foundation, said Kintsurashvili, has had its offices vandalized twice and employees have found posters plastered on their offices with the word “traitor” alongside their photos.

"They can sanction us," she said. "But registering as a foreign agent with the authorities undermines our work."

MDF, she continued, will use all legal means to defend its rights and ongoing work.

"That’s why we joined other civil society organizations to challenge the foreign agent law in Georgia’s Constitutional Court and in the European Court of Human Rights," Kintsurashvili said. "We believe in an open, inclusive and pluralistic society. So, with our work, we see people as amplifying their knowledge, equipping them with self-regulation."

"Our work is all applicable to today," she continued. "Here and abroad."

The Media Development Foundation is a DW Akademie partner in Georgia and is supported by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).