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Teyit.org

Organization: Teyit
Applicant: Teyit Medya A.S.- Mehmet Atakan Foca
Assessor: Erkan Saka
Edits made by the organization after this assessment

IFCN Staff wrote:

The organization revised the explanation about the non-partisanship of the employees: https://teyit.org/metodoloji-ve-ilkeler.

This has made Teyit.org fully compliant with criterion 2b (previously found to be “partially” compliant).

The organization also published PDFs with income sources, publicly available at https://teyit.org/nedir/ and https://teyit.org/about.


Conclusion and recommendations
on 24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Erkan Saka wrote:

The whole Teyit.org emphasis is on “verification” instead of “fact-checking.” If this does not constitute a problem, I believe, in overall, Teyit.org can be a reliable partner.

There are some issues on articles 1a, 2b and 4a. 1a seems to be structural. I leave it to IFCN administrators to decide in this specific case. 2b and 4a are easier to fix.

on 24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Erkan Saka recommended Accept with edits


Section 1: Organization

Criterion 1a
Proof of registration
Evidence required: Please provide evidence that the signatory is a legally-registered organization set up exclusively for the purpose of fact-checking or the distinct fact-checking project of a recognized media house or research institution.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

We are a project of Dubium Bilişim, Danışmanlık ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti. which is registered company in Turkey. (Page 1 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_AdwpY4dBTDZmwwSWZuVk45dVc4eHZDa01TRzJkeTl6eGJR Page 2 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_AdwpY4dBTDM09OWTVVTUhSUzR3OVNBRWNlWEx0R1E0Unhz) teyit.org is a social enterprise which means we focus on social impact we create, not revenue. However, teyit.org can get income but doesn’t distribute it to its partners. (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwRS3UP9Y283UkZBem1XeWM2d1E)

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Evidence of legal registration is verified. However, applicant organization is established as a limited company and fact-checking is listed as one of their many income-generating activities. There is not a distinct section related to fact-checking but the company’s single output is teyit.org and all observable activities are connected to this fact-checking website. Besides, the applicant attached a document that includes an executive meeting decision not to share any profits. As far as I know, Turkish trade law do not include a social enterprise in the American legal sense and I believe this is how they came up with to resolve the company status to adapt IFCN codes.


done 1a marked as Partially compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 1b
Archive
Evidence required: Insert a link to the archive of fact checks published in the previous three months. If you do not collect all fact checks in one place, please explain how the fact-checking is conducted by your organization.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)
Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

There are 4 reports in English in May and more than 10 reports in Turkish just in May in teyit.org or teyit.org/en.


done_all 1b marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Section 2: Nonpartisanship and Fairness

Criterion 2a
Body of work sample
Evidence required: Please share links to ten fact checks that better represent the scope and consistency of your fact-checking. Provide a short explanation of how your organization strives to maintain coherent standards across fact checks.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)
Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Links to ten fact checks and my own observation of other links demonstrate that the site fact checking topics are extensive and non-partisan. Besides, not only political issues but social and cultural issues are fact-checked. 


done_all 2a marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 2b
Nonpartisanship policy
Evidence required: Please share evidence of your policy preventing staff from direct involvement in political parties and advocacy organizations. Please also indicate the policy your organization has as a whole regarding advocacy and supporting political candidates.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

As explained on https://teyit.org/metodoloji-ve-ilkeler/ - https://teyit.org/methodology we respect all different political aspects of our team members. But we do not allow any point of view to be effective on the work we do. The worldviews of the subcontractors are not effective in any analysis or any work done by teyit.org. Also team members sign this principle in their contract.

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

The organization revised the explanation about the non-partisanship of the employees: https://teyit.org/metodoloji-ve-ilkeler.

This has made Teyit.org fully compliant with criterion 2b (previously found to be “partially” compliant).

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Despite an emphasis on objectivity and fairness, there could be an explicit statement about how staff members can be prevented doing that. This part seems to be confused with the methodology itself. There can be a more explicit statement about staff affiliations.


done_all 2b marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Section 3: Transparency of Sources

Criterion 3a
Sources Policy
Please share a brief and public explanation (500 words max) of how sources are provided in enough detail that readers could replicate the fact check. If you have a public policy on how you find and use sources for your fact-checking, it should be shared here.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

We state the information about our sources in our analysis. Our readers can follow how we verify/debunk suspicious news, by reaching these sources. We are trying to show all steps, names of experts, of department of the sources while we are explaining fact. However, we comply with the request of our sources to keep their identity confidential if they feel threatened on the account of the position they hold or other reasons.

Also we produced teyit.link, it is our own archive tool to keep evidences online and with timestamp. Thus, readers can check web pages shows what the date we archived it. We also encourage the people use teyit.link to keep their evidence online and timestamped.

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago) Updated: 5 years ago

The organization also published PDFs with income sources, publicly available at https://teyit.org/nedir/ and https://teyit.org/about.

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Actual reports demonstrate how verification (and fact-checking) occurs and they conform transparency of sources.

However, applicant’ own answer here does not seem to be adequate. It refers to an authoritative verification handbook for its particular methods. It is better to explain them in its own website. Besides, in the methodology section, the applicants states using a software for media scanning (Dubito). There is no link to that software, it is said to be in beta and it will be open source later in future. This kind of software usage might be problematic.  


done_all 3a marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Section 4: Transparency of Funding & Organization

Criterion 4a
Funding Sources
Evidence required: Please link to the section where you publicly list your sources of funding (including, if they exist, any rules around which types of funding you do or don't accept), or a statement on ownership if you are the branch of an established media organization or research institution.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

The supporters of teyit.org are listed in the “Supporters” section of our website. The analyses or the articles published on teyit.org are not influenced by the funding institutions. We would never allow any interference to our content policy or our methodology. The moment we encounter such interference attempt, we end our relationship with that funding institution and declare this situation with our users. Everyone can see the budget of previous year on https://teyit.org/nedir or https://teyit.org/about

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Funding sources are listed at (https://teyit.org/nedir/) but in details only one source is given without any details… No expense listing can be found (https://teyit.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-gelir-tablosu.pdf)


done 4a marked as Partially compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 4b
Staff
Evidence required: Please link to the section detailing all authors and key actors behind your fact-checking project with their biographies. You can also list the name and bios of the members of the editorial board, pool of experts, advisory board, etc. if your organization has those.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)
Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

I have checked the links. They are complete. 


done_all 4b marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 4c
Contact
Evidence required: Please link to the section where readers can get in touch with the organization.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)
Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

I have checked the links. They are complete. 


done_all 4c marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Section 5: Transparency of Methodology

Criterion 5a
Detailed Methodology
Evidence required: Please link to a section or article detailing the steps you follow for your fact-checking work.

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

In the page where methodology is explained, the signatory can elaborate verification methods explicitly instead of referring to an online source for details.


done_all 5a marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 5b
Claim submissions
Evidence required: Please link to the page or process through which readers can submit claims to fact-check. If you do not allow this, please briefly explain why.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Our followers can send the suspicious and doubtful content via Website: https://teyit.org/ihbar-2/ Facebook: facebook.com/teyitorg Twitter: twitter.com/teyitorg and WhatsApp hotline: +90 (546) 474 54 40 We get almost 4,000 false/suspicious (3,505 unique users) news report from those channels in 6 months as stated on the reports: https://teyit.org/6-ayda-3-bin-505-kisi-ihbar-hatlarini-kullanarak-yanki-fanuslarini-asmamiza-yardim-etti/ (Eng: https://teyit.org/en/4000-reports-174-analyses-54-warnings-in-6-months/) and https://teyit.org/6-ayda-4-bin-ihbar-174-analiz-54-dikkat/ (Eng: https://teyit.org/en/3505-people-helped-us-to-go-beyond-echo-chambers-over-the-past-6-months/)

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Clear enough.


done_all 5b marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Section 6: Open & Honest Corrections Policy

Criterion 6a
Corrections policy
Evidence required: Please link to the page with your policy to address corrections. If it is not public, please share your organization's handbook.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

https://teyit.org/methodology/ - https://teyit.org/metodoloji-ve-ilkeler/ During verification process, there can be cases of the data we have leading us to errors. When there is a need for an alteration, we will make sure that everybody who reads the analyses written by teyit.org, will see it. When it is indicated that there is a mistake in one of our analyses and presented us with the sources, we launch a new investigation and analysis process. Particularly, we investigate with regard to the “correction requests” coming from our social media and WhatsApp hot-line, and when there is a need for alteration, we inform our readers while following the principle of source transparency.

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

The signatory has a public corrections policy, which is explicitly declared at the end of the methodology section.


done_all 6a marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.

Criterion 6b
Examples of corrections
Evidence required: Please provide two examples of a correction made, or correction requests handled, in the past year.

Teyit
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

https://teyit.org/referandum-icin-bavyera-devlet-opera-binasina-hayir-bayragi-asildi-iddiasi/

In the first version of this analyse, we didn’t aware second and tiny flag on the picture and it was a mistake. We added informations about second flag which we didn’t aware before publishing analyse and we announced our mistake from social media channels by pinning related tweet and Facebook post for one week. Changed title of analyse with “FIXED” mark.

https://teyit.org/ebu-hanzalanin-ankarada-panele-katilacagi-dogru-reklam-panolari-montaj/

After we published this article, the panel which held by Abu Hanzala cancelled by Governorship of Ankara. teyit.org added this information as an updated information. We state the corrections or additional information on analyse on below of the analyse.

Erkan Saka Assessor
24-Jul-2017 (6 years ago)

Quoted examples are good cases how this works…


done_all 6b marked as Fully compliant by Erkan Saka.