The APAC Trusted Media Summit 2019 was held in Singapore from December 6th to December 11th, 2019, hosted by the Google News Initiative and the International Fact–Checking Network. Around 270 people including journalists, fact–checkers, and researchers gathered together from 28 countries and regions mainly from Asia–Pacific region.
The summit event started with the product working group meeting on December 6th, which was followed by the main conference on 7th and 8th where representatives of media outlets, fact–checking groups, and research institutions reported the status of each country/region including the expansion of mis- and disinformation and countermeasures taken by media organizations. Presenters also shared with the participants the achievements of fact–checking collaborations beyond media borders that had been triggered by electoral fraud and other issues as well as looming challenges. The conference also arouse attention to video posts using “deepfakes,” or fake videos that are so elaborate that users are easily fooled to believe they are authentic.
The second half of the conference was dedicated to workshops instructed by persons working at the frontline of fact checking. The workshops included a forum on how to combat misinformation in medicine that were spreading in Asia and a “verification” seminar focusing on how to verify the authenticity of possible mis- and disinformation from unknown sources, utilizing search engines and digital tools. Among the workshop leaders, Dr. Kajimoto Masato, Assistant Professor of the University of Hong Kong, who had been promoting news literacy education in various countries/regions in Asia, held a three-day “bootcamp” on news literacy, where around sixty participants shared their activities and experiences, building a stronger network.