Lisbon, Aug. 7, 2026 (Lusa) - Lusa is launching a website on Friday dedicated to fact-checking, a service the agency launched a year ago, which the Editor-in-Chief, Luísa Meireles, hopes will act as an «antidote» to manipulation.
«In a media landscape where journalistic mediation is losing ground to populists and ‘influencers' with a great capacity to go viral, fact-checking has become essential,» Luísa Meireles wrote in the introductory text for the website www.lusaverifica.pt, in which she defends the fundamental role of news agencies.
News agencies, she said, are «fundamental pillars in the fight against disinformation, as they act as the main primary source of verified information, applying rigorous fact-checking procedures» and thus serving «as ‘antidotes' against manipulation».
For this very reason, news agencies are guarantors of the security and credibility of information in society, «preserving the integrity of public debate and democracy». Ultimately, «it is the preservation of democracy that is at stake».
In June 2025, Lusa launched the Lusa Verifica service, which produced 80 fact-checks in its first year, distributed via the agency's services and available free of charge on the website dedicated to the latest news on disinformation – https://combatefakenews. lusa.pt/ —, created in 2019 to coincide with Lusa's national conference on the subject, held in Lisbon.
Journalist Luís Galrão has been Lusa Verifica's fact-checker since 2025.
With the new website, which replaces the previous one, the Lusa news agency will be able to apply for ‘fact-checker' certification on the European fact-checking platform (EFCSN, which stands for European Fact-Checking Standards Network) (https://efcsn.com/) and the international platform – IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) (https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/).
Lusa Verifica uses the classifications ‘True', ‘False', ‘True, but…' and ‘False, but…' for cases where statements are taken out of context, applying this fact-checking process to statements or claims made by national and international officials.
Readers can submit questions and suggestions via a dedicated form on the website.
Lusa thus joins other news agencies that offer this type of fact-checking service. Since 2024, it has been participating in projects run by ISCTE's MediaLab to monitor disinformation during election campaigns.
NS/ADB // ADB.
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