Digital Journalism for Eastern Europe » Artem Babak

Checking the Facts and Finding the Lies

Artem Babak — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 11:30:29 +0000

Production Data
Shot in Kiev, October, 23, 2015
Script, Production, Camera: Artem Babak
Edited with: Premiere Elements 13

Summary

The fact-checking online project StopFake verifies news and debunks untrue information that the media published about events in Ukraine.

Besides general information about the idea of the project, this video also introduces a member of the StopFake team – Maria Kovalchuk. She is responsible for media monitoring and representing the project on social media.

About StopFake

Screenshot of the website www.stopfake.org

The website www.stopfake.org was launched in March 2014, after Russia began the military operation to annex the Crimea peninsula and launched large-scale propaganda against Ukraine.

At that time, about 20 people worked for the project. Since 2015, StopFake has received financial support from several international foundations.

StopFake fact-checkers mostly verify and check Ukrainian and Russian websites. The website is available in five languages: Russian, English, Romanian, Spanish and Bulgarian.

Weekly newscasts in English:

Maria Kovalchuk

Kiev-born Ukrainian journalist Maria Kovalchuk works in daily media monitoring, mostly of Russian websites. Currently she is studying for an M.A. in philology at the National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. Maria Kovalchuk has been working for StopFake since spring 2014.

Background Information

Fact-checking became a very important topic for Ukraine in 2014, when the media (mainly Russian media controlled by the authorities) started spreading untrue news about the events in Ukraine. Such news often become viral and are widely spread on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki. A majority of internet users do not verify this information.

Interesting Links

Website of The Africa Check (in English)

Website of Fact Checker – The Washington Post (in English)

Tools to verify information (in English)

Ballinstadt: Dedicated to the History of European Emigrants

Artem Babak — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 07:38:01 +0000

The museum is divided into three block buildings that tell the story of millions of emigrants who left Hamburg in search of a better life.

Suitcases greet visitors in almost every room

For centuries, refugees and migrants have played an important role in history of Europe and America.

Outside the museum

The museum is full of interactive elements including video chronicles, audio stories and rare photos of the emigrants. Each of them recalls a unique life story.

An Armenian visitor listens to the story of young German emigrant

Some emigrants left German cities in search of a better life in a New World before World War I; some Germans left to escape Nazi persecution; entire families fled from the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire of the 1880s; others left Germany for the U.S. because of political persecution in the wake of the 1848 revolution.

“Please show your ticket and visa”

Another amazing aspect highlighted in the museum are the conditions of their voyage. For example, in the 1870s most migrants travelled in tweendecks that were less than 1.8 meters in height. Each adult was given just 47 cm of space to sleep in, children about 25 cm. Often between 150 and 900 people slept in one big room. In addition, there were serious problems with food and drinking water.

To make matters worse, in the mid-19th century crew had no experience in dealing with passengers, so emigrants were often mixed in with cargo like cotton or tar.

Horrible conditions in the ships

But perhaps the most important room in the museum is the last one, containing Apple computers. A user-friendly program helps people to find the personal story of relatives who might have been emigrants. If you not sure about your family’s past movements, Ballinstadt is a good place to start your research.

Interlinker Hrant Galstyan is trying to find any relatives that may have emigrated