Peter Cunliffe-Jones 'Fake News - what's the harm?'

Series Five

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Peter Cunliffe-Jones, visiting researcher at the University of Westminster and Director of Facts Matter Research, a misinformation research and strategy consultancy, where he advises organisations in effective ways to both counter the harmful consequences of misinformation and protect wider freedom of speech. 

Peter started his career as a news journalist for the AFP new agency - working for more than 20 years in Europe, Africa and Asia. He reported from Bosnia and Croatia on the last year of war and first 12 months of peace, from Nigeria on the end of decades of military rule, oversaw the agency's coverage of the Asian tsunami, developed its online news services. In 2012, he founded Africa Check, the African continent's first independent fact-checking organisation, which operates in South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria and Kenya.

He's also run training courses for fact-checkers in countries from Afghanistan to Myanmar, worked as a strategic adviser to the Arab Fact-Checkers network, which seeks to foster nonpartisan fact-checking in the Arab world, and served on the Safety Advisory Council for TikTok in Africa.

His new book is called "Fake News - what's the harm?" and presents four dynamic ideas for fact-checkers, policymakers and platforms on the challenge of information disorder.

In our conversation, Peter discusses all of the above and more, in what I hope you’ll agree is a fascinating episode. So – enjoy!