To Combat Disinformation, Journalists Need to ‘Go on the Offense,’ Says ICFJ President

By: ICFJ | 08/30/2023

An Editor & Publisher article recently featured ICFJ’s efforts to combat disinformation, through the Disarming Disinformation initiative. ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi discussed the various aspects of the program and highlighted the spread of disinformation on a global scale.

“Disinformation has no borders,” she said. “I think that this is one thing that we, in the U.S., need to keep in mind — that local news exists in a global context. There are big global issues affecting our local audiences, and I think how we respond to that is really important.”

Disarming Disinformation is run by ICFJ with lead funding from the Scripps Howard Fund. The three-year project empowers journalists and journalism students to fight disinformation.

Through an emphasis on investigative journalism, community engagement, and research, the program aims to help newsrooms implement strategies to combat disinformation. Moshavi expressed the need for journalists to engage with partners and expand their reach.

“Journalism is an important defense against disinformation, and it has to not only go on the defense, it has to go on the offense,” she said. “The flip side to disinformation is quality journalism. There has to be good news to fill those gaps, not just to combat disinformation but to fill that truth gap.”

Read the full story at EditorandPublisher.com.

Latest News

Journalists from Nigeria and Ghana Win 2025 Michael Elliott Award

Godwin Asediba and Silas Jonathan are the 2025 winners of the Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling.

Rubryka's Solutions Journalism Offers a Beacon of Hope in War-torn Ukraine

As Russian tanks rumbled toward Kyiv in February 2022, many Ukrainians took up guns to defend their homeland. Anastasia Rudenko has taken a different path. She turned to solutions journalism to fight the horrors of war. 

News Creators ‘Redefining What Journalism Can Be’ Win Inaugural ICFJ Award

Independent news creators from eight countries have been selected for ICFJ’s inaugural News Creator Award for Excellence in Independent Video Journalism. The awardees represent a diverse range of media platforms and storytelling approaches, from longform videos on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement to reels challenging misconceptions of so-called “green mining” in