In this mega-election year with more than 60 countries hosting elections, multiple global conflicts and an onslaught of harrowing images on social media (both real and AI-generated), journalists and fact-checkers need mental health resources more than ever. As Naseem Miller said recently in a National Press Club panel we participated in, journalism is a trauma-facing profession, and few face trauma more directly than fact-checkers, who often must look directly at images of violence, abuse and misinformation in order to assess its accuracy.
At The Self-Investigation, we have just launched Cómo liderar en salud mental para, a pilot training and coaching program supported by the International Fact-Checking Network. With five trainings and four coaching calls over the course of 6 months, we’re supporting 14 fact-checking organizations in two cohorts (one in English and one in Spanish) on crucial topics like creating a culture of psychological safety in the team, the basics of mental health and burnout prevention and the importance of digital boundaries.
These are the 14 organisations that are part of the two cohorts:
| English: | Spanish: |
| AFP Fact-check para Europa | Aos Fatos |
| BOOM Live | Bolivia Verifica |
| Estadao Verifica | Chequeado |
| Factcheckhub | Colombia Check |
| Lakmusz | Cotejo.info |
| Lead Stories | Factchequeado |
| Logically Facts | Verificat |
We’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response online. We received dozens of applications, and as this is a pilot, we had to turn down many. But we’ve designed this for longevity — we’re developing a guide that we can make available to fact-checkers around the world, and with success, we hope to make this coaching and training program available as an ongoing and expansive program.
Below, please meet our initial cohort of participants, and stay tuned to our blog and newsletter for more updates in the months to come about what we’re learning and discussing.
Meet the seven fact-checking leaders of the English-language cohort:
Additional participants from the selected fact-checking organisations:
- Kritika Goel – Logically Facts (India)
- Rosemary Igebka – Factcheckhub (Nigeria)
- Szilvi Német – Lakmusz (Hungary)
- Karen Rebelo – BOOM Live (India)
- Bradley Sylvester – USA Today (United States)
- Katarina Subasic – AFP (Serbia)
Here are the names of the seven selected leaders of the Spanish-language cohort:
- Tamoa Calzadilla – Factchequeado (US)
- Patricia Cusicanqui Hanssen – Bolivia Verifica (Bolivia)
- Fernanda da Escóssia – Aos Fatos (Brazil)
- Matías Di Santi – Chequeado (Argentina)
- José Felipe Sarmiento Abella – Colombia Check (Colombia)
- Alba Tobella – Verificat (Spain)
- Karla Torres – Cotejo.info (Venezuela)
Get to know more about them aquí.