Advisory Board

Tijana Cvjetićanin has been active in the field of fact-checking since 2010 and has led some pioneering research on fact-checking and disinformation over the years. She oversees the work of two fact-checking platforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Istinomjer and Raskrinkavanje and plays an active role in the fact-checking community in the SEE region and beyond. She serves on the IFCN Advisory board and the board of the regional SEE Check network.

Noko has had an extensive career in the media sector as a journalist and manager. With a work experience of 20 years, Noko has a deep understanding of the competitive business environment specifically the online/digital media field coupled with expertise in news gathering and media management. In various senior roles in his career, he has led several creative teams successfully for a number of media organisations including BDFM (Tiso Blackstar). In his current role as Deputy Director of Africa Check, the continent's first fact-checking organisation, he is responsible for operations of the organisation across four markets South Africa, Senegal, Kenya and Nigeria.

Television & print financial journalist for over 25 years now focussed on fact checking and fake news busting, the first in India. Also founded India's first data journalism initiative, the award-winning IndiaSpend, also a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). A Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Colorado.

Glenn Kessler has been editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker since 2011, making him one of the pioneers of political fact-checking. In a journalism career spanning nearly four decades, Kessler has covered foreign policy, economic policy, the White House, Congress, politics, airline safety and Wall Street. He was The Washington Post's chief State Department reporter for nine years, traveling around the world with three secretaries of state. Before that, he covered tax and budget policy for The Washington Post and also served as the newspaper's national business editor. He joined the Post in 1998 from Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in spot reporting. He is the author of “The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy” (2007) and “Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies” (2020). He earned a B.A. in history from Brown University (1981) and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (1983).

Bharat Gupta is the Chief Executive Officer of Jagran New Media, the digital wing of India's largest print and radio publisher group, Jagran Prakashan Ltd. With 20 years of rich experience to his credit, Bharat has played a crucial role in managing and turning around several media businesses across print, radio, ground activation & digital. With over 100 million users, JNM is amongst the Top Internet Media Groups in India.

Ellen T.Tordesillas is a trustee and writer of VERA Files, a group that undertakes in-depth reporting on current issues. She writes a column for is a newspaper Malaya Business Insight and ABS-CBN.com As a reporter, she has covered various beats including the Presidency. In 1999, she won the Jaime V. Ongpin award for Best Investigative Reporting for the story she co-wrote with Shiela Coronel, ” PEA-AMARI – grandmother of all scams”. She was also awarded the Marshall McLuhan fellowship. In 2001, she co-wrote with Australian journalist Greg Hutchinson the book, “Hot Money, Warm Bodies – the downfall of President Joseph Estrada.” The Hamburg Foundation has awarded her a fellowship starting October 2020.

Dapo Olorunyomi is currently the publisher of Nigeria's leading investigative news platform, Premium Times, promoters of Dubawa a fact checking platform that operates in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Previous to this, he served as pioneer policy director and chief of staff at Nigeria's leading anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. He is on the advisory board of Africa Check and the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism, ICIJ. He is a co-recipient of the 2020 International Press Freedom Award.

Cofounder of Maldita.es, a Spanish journalistic project that hosts a verification operation named Maldito Bulo (Damn Hoax). She was part of the High Level Group on disinformation appointed by the European Commission. Former team member of the TV show El Objetivo de Ana Pastor. She collaborates with laSexta, Onda Cero radio and various Spanish universities.

Aws Al-Saadi, founder and president of Tech4Peace, leverages his computer engineering background and expertise in fact-checking, digital rights, and digital security. His skills were enriched by attending a summer school in human rights and media at Utrecht University, and a diploma in public policy and leadership. After working in IT and management, Aws dedicated himself to social impact through volunteering and organizational roles. He launched Tech4Peace in 2016 to combat disinformation, transforming it into a significant Iraqi NGO focused on digital security and mis- and disinformation. At Tech4Peace, he is a key project manager, fostering growth, partnerships, and educational initiatives.

The Manager of AkhbarMeter boasts over 15 years of distinguished experience in journalism, coupled with a commendable tenure of more than 5 years specializing in fact-checking. Holding a master's degree in Digital Communication Leadership, she is currently pursuing further studies in data science, driven by a commitment to harnessing its potential for the media industry. Notable achievements include contributing to the development of AkhbarMeter's news assessment and fact-checking methodologies, resulting in accolades such as securing 2nd place in the Youth Innovation Challenge on Democracy and Governance in Africa, as well as triumphing in the MENA Innovation Challenge in media organized by the Digital Arabia Network (DAN). She has also been honored with speaking engagements at prestigious regional and international events including Africa Talks, ARIJ Annual Forum, Point Iraq, and Rakameya. Additionally, she has conducted numerous workshops dedicated to fact-checking and media literacy, catering to both journalists and media consumers.

Olivia Sohr has worked at Chequeado, a fact checking organization based in Argentina, since its foundation in 2010, where she is currently the Director of Impact and New Initiatives. She coordinates different journalistic projects within the organization, among them LatamChequea, the network of Latin American fact checkers that brings together 40 organizations from 18 countries. She also works in the evaluation of impact of fact checking and academic research to better understand the dynamics of disinformation. She is a sociologist and journalist. She holds a Master's degree in Sociology, specializing in Media from the École d'Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Besides her work in fact checking she has been a columnist in radio and television.

Masato Kajimoto, PhD, is a professor of practice at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He specializes in news literacy education, fact-checking practice, and misinformation ecosystem research in Asia. He founded a not-for-profit educational organization called ANNIE (Asian Network of News and Information.) Educators) to develop teaching and learning materials specific to the socio-cultural environments, media systems, and political landscapes in different Asian countries. At the university, Masato runs Annie Lab, a student-driven fact-checking newsroom on campus that became a verified signatory of IFCN's Code of Principles in 2021. Annie Lab is also a member of Vaccine Safety Net by the World Health Organization and is involved in interdisciplinary projects related to infodemic management. He holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a PhD in sociology from the University of Hong Kong. He is fluent in English and Japanese. His writings appeared in scholarly journals and professional publications in both languages.

Thanos Sitistas is a fact-checker with a diverse background in fact-checking initiatives. He currently serves as a Research Associate at the Social Computing Research Center at Cyprus University of Technology (SCRC/CUT). Additionally, he is the founder of Greece Fact Check, a civil non-profit organization established in 2023. He is involved as a Consultant at Fact-Check Cyprus, the first officially recognized fact-checking initiative in Cyprus. Previously, he held a core position at Ellinika Hoaxes fact-checking organization, from 2015 to 2023 and co-founded Ellinika Hoaxes civil non-profit company in 2018 (left in 2023). He was an NCO at the Hellenic Air Force for 23 years, retiring in 2022.

Lori Robertson is the managing editor of FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining FactCheck.org in 2007, she covered the media for nine years as an editor and writer for American Journalism Review, a bimonthly media watchdog magazine. Previously, she was the administrative director of the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families, a resource center for journalists covering at-risk kids. Her journalism honors include two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her work at FactCheck.org and the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism for her work at AJR.

EunRyung Chong PhD, is the inaugural director of the SNU FactCheck Center, the first and largest web platform for professional fact-checkers in South Korea. Her research lies at the intersection of fact-checking, preventing disinformation, and journalism education. A scholar-practitioner, she has published on the state of fact-checking and media credibility in South Korea. Chong worked for 19 years as reporter and editor at Dong-A Daily, a leading newspaper. She is a commissioner of the Press Arbitration Commission in Korea.

Neil Brown is the president of The Poynter Institute. He joined Poynter in September 2017, after serving as the editor and vice president of the Tampa Bay Times. He was named editor of the Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) in May 2010, and in that capacity oversaw the journalism published in the Times, on its website tampabay.com, and in related products including a daily tabloid called tbt*. During Brown's tenure leading the Times news staff, the paper won more national and state awards than at any time in its history, including six Pulitzer Prizes in the last eight years. He also launched PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking website that has been replicated nationally and inspired similar efforts worldwide.

Bill Adair is the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, the creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact, and the co-founder of the International Fact Checking Network. At Duke, he heads the journalism program as the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center and conducts research on automated fact-checking in the Reporters' Lab. He worked for 24 years as a reporter and editor for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) and served as the paper's Washington Bureau Chief from 2004 to 2013. He launched PolitiFact in 2007 and built it into the largest fact-checking effort in history, with affiliates in the United States and Australia. His articles have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nieman Journalism Lab and Poynter. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (with the PolitiFact staff), the Manship Prize for New Media in Democratic Discourse and the Everett Dirksen Award for Distinguished Coverage of Congress.

Peter Cunliffe-Jones was a journalist for more than 25 years from 1990, most of it for the AFP news agency. He reported from around Europe, covered the wars in Bosnia and Croatia and the end of military rule in Nigeria, and was chief editor for Asia-Pacific 2003-2006. In 2012 he founded Africa's leading independent fact-checking organisation, Africa Check, in partnership with colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. As an adviser to the IFCN, he led the 2019/2020 review of its Code of Principles. He is now a senior visiting research fellow at the University of Westminster in London and co-director of a new programme on media freedom and trust. He is a lifelong supporter of Liverpool football club. His book My Nigeria – Five decades of independence was called "a triumph" by Chinua Achebe.