Abuse and Threats Come With the Territory for Many of the World’s Fact-Checkers

“Without fear or favor” was the theme of this past Sunday’s World Press Freedom Day—a phrase that echoes an announcement by New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs when he became the newspaper’s owner 124 years ago.

The fear part certainly resonates with the fact-checkers who challenge political falsehoods and online misinformation around the world. An analysis done this week by the Reporters’ Lab at Duke University found that nearly half of them–109 of the 236 fact-checkers we track– operate in places where legal protections and the safety of the press are rated “problematic,” “difficult” or “serious,” according to new data from the World Press Freedom Index.

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