Sushi Das Speech Coverage
The Fact Check Verification Unit plans on expanding into Asia next year using the $1 million Skelton prize it won last night.
Chief of staff Sushi Das said the expansion would help cater to the booming industry of fact-checking in the digital age.
Ms Das said with the rapid advances in communication technology, the news industry was disrupted.
“Fifty-eight per cent of people surveyed cannot tell the difference between real and fake news,” Das said.
Anyone can create content and publish it, although “with this freedom to publish has come to a tidal wave of misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies,” she said.
“The number of traditionally trained journalists are decreasing, and the number of spin doctors is increasing,” Das said.
Das said fact checking “allows us to marry academic rigour with journalistic flair” and helps separate “fact from fiction”.
