About us

The non­governmental organization Media Reforms Center is an educational platform, founded by Mohyla School of Journalism at National University of ‘Kyiv­Mohyla Academy’, which aims to implement high standards of journalism education in Ukraine, raise the level of media literacy, inform about the danger of propaganda and dissemination of fake information in the media. Since it was launched, MRC has been working on implementing western standards of journalism in Ukraine and raising the level of media literacy for different audiences, from students to journalists to members of public who want to consume media content in a critical and responsible way. In order to achieve this, we conduct fact checking workshops for journalists and journalism lecturers from Ukrainian universities, and train students, bloggers and civil activists from different regions of Ukraine and other countries. We keep abreast of the latest media trends and contribute to international media research. Our experts participate in international conferences and forums and speak at major discussions on key issues facing contemporary media on a regular basis.

The flagship project of our organization “StopFake” is currently well known to media professionals all over the world. Not only does it identify cases of fake information about events in Ukraine, but also actually initiated an international discussion on how to resist this shameful phenomenon.

On March 2, 2014 Kyiv Mohyla Journalism School lecturers, graduates and students along with the KMA Digital Future of Journalism  project launched the Stopfake.org fact checking site.

Journalists, editors, IT specialists, translators, all those who cared about the future of Ukraine during this dangerous time of the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine joined the project.

Initially the goal of the project was to verify and refute disinformation and propaganda about events in Ukraine being circulated in the media. Eventually the project grew into an information hub where we examine and analyze all aspects of Kremlin propaganda.

We not only look at how propaganda influences Ukraine, we also try to investigate how propaganda impacts on other countries and regions, from the European Union to countries which once made up the Soviet Union.

Our team of media professionals is constantly growing. Today we fact-check, de-bunk, edit, translate, research and disseminate information in 14 languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English, Spanish, Serbian, Turkish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Czech, German and Polish, Bulgarian.

Our content is available on our site, our video digests are broadcast online and on local Ukrainian television stations; our radio podcasts are also available online and on social media sites. We also publish ‘Your Right to Know’ newspaper for Donbas.

Stopfake.org is not supported financially or otherwise by any official Ukrainian organization or government agency. We are a journalists’ organization whose primary goal is to verify information, raise media literacy in Ukraine and establish a clear red line between journalism and propaganda.

We strive to achieve our goal not only through refuting fakes but also through creating a propaganda archive and data base, analyzing and verifying information, training various media stakeholders to identify fakes and participating in conferences and seminars on journalistic integrity and fact-checking.

Launched as a volunteer project, StopFake.org has been able to continue its important work thanks to the generosity of crowdfunding and contributions from our readers. Stopfake was also supported by the international Renaissance Foundation, the Foreign Ministry of the Czech Republic, the Embassy of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Ukraine and the Sigrid Rausing Trust.

THE StopFake TEAM:

Yevhen Fedchenko (Editor-in-Chief)

Viktoriia Romaniuk (Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Ukrainian TV Digest Producer)

Ruslan Deynychenko (Executive Director, Russian TV Digest Producer)

Yurii Panin (Technical Director) 

Alina Mosendz, Oksana Pinsker, Oksana Poluliakh, Irena Chalupa, Olena Churanova, Olga Yurkova, Alla Radnyuk, Nadiya Balovsyak, Pawel Bobolowicz, Wojtek Pokora, Wojciech Mucha, Galyna Schimansky-Geier, Valeriia Danko, Artem Laptiev, Roksolana Dryndak, Marianna Prysiazhniuk, Oleksandr Zamkovoi, Marko Suprun, Serhiy Kharchenko, Bohdana Yordan, Makbule Mirsaliyeva, Vladyslav Movchan

and our active and vigilant readers-debunkers.

We are very grateful to our colleagues who at different stages helped to create and develop StopFake.

METHODOLOGY

ETHIC AND STANDARDS

StopFake team was among the first to adapt already existing fact-cheking principles to tackle disinformatin and build resilience against disinformation through what we call MAD (monitoring, archiving and debunking).
In last 5 years StopFake has accumulated a wealth of experience, collecting examples of Russian disinformation, mapping the distribution ecosystem of disinformation and its impact on Ukrainian audiences.

Our editorial policy is based on international principles of professional ethics in journalism, including the right to true information.

In order to internationalize our efforts 2016 Stopfake.org joined First Draft as a Core Partner. First Draft is a global network of media organizations that are collaborating to improve quality of online journalism.

On February 22, 2020 StopFake.org joined to The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

In our work, we follow The Code of Principles of the IFCN.

 If you have any complains or suggestions about our work, you can also contact IFCN. More information here.

Main approaches to our work are summarized in our EDITORIAL POLICY.

StopFake fact-checkers subscribe to Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists (known as “Bordeaux Declaration“) and use it as a guideline for their activities.

We invite all of you to join us and support our work.

If you spot fake information, send it to us for a truth autopsy at [email protected].

Here is a link to our detailed 2016-2017 Report (in Ukrainian and English):

Here is a link to our detailed 2018-2019 report (in Ukrainian):

StopFake 2018-9