Press Releases

EL PAÍS joins The Trust Project to promote greater transparency

09-10-2018

Newspaper EL PAÍS, along with 20 other news organizations, is joining The Trust Project, which aims to strengthen public confidence in the media through greater transparency and public accountability. With the creation of a series of trust indicators and digital standards, the project seeks to identify and increase the amount of trustworthy news and information published by credible media organizations.

The initiative represents a coordinated fight against misinformation on the Internet. Each web site and news item will be clearly labeled so that readers can identify the type of article – news, analysis, opinion or promotional content by advertisers – as well the author and his or her expertise. Readers will thereby be equipped to decide if the information comes from a reliable source.

The Trust Project was founded by the award-winning American journalist Sally Lehrman under the auspices of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Santa Clara. It is funded by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Google, the Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Markkula Foundation.

 

"Trust indicators are becoming the transparency standard in the world’s newsrooms and beyond," says Lehrman. "The US elections highlighted a global problem: the need for credible, truthful and reliable news is more pressing than ever. Today, with the growth of The Trust Project, millions of people can use trust indicators and be assured that they will be able to recognize reliable news that is produced by journalists every day. "


The trust indicators are based on interviews with real news readers and clearly outline a commitment to ethics, to inclusive journalism, to rectifications and other professional standards shared by more than 120 media organizations around the world who have partnered with the project

"Now more than ever it is important to stand apart from the deafening noise caused by the ever accelerating flow of news, to distinguish proven facts from manipulation, and to separate opinion from news. That is why EL PAÍS is committed to transparency as championed by The Trust Project ", explained Borja Echevarría, deputy editor of EL PAÍS.

Partners of the initiative include The Washington Post, BBC, Corriere della Sera, Zeit Online and The Economist.

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