INTERVIEW
Contagious, false information? "Yes, that's the word," replied Grégoire Lemarchand, deputy editor in charge of social networks and fact-checking at Agence France Presse (AFP). Guest from Europe 1 on Monday, the journalist returned to the spread of false news at the time of the coronavirus pandemic. “Since the start of the year, our teams have not stopped,” says Grégoire Lemarchand. "The fact that we are on world news that concerns all countries means that it never stops. The typology of false information changes over the weeks and months, but it is an incessant flow," he says. he.
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Wearing a mask, "a major point of tension and which feeds a lot of false information"
Since February, the 90 journalists around the world specializing in checking and monitoring false information have worked "almost 100% on the theme of the coronavirus", according to Grégoire Lemarchand. Despite several months of work on the subject, the difficulty is daily, explains the journalist. In question, knowledge about the disease, which is "shifting". "What we knew or what we thought we knew six months ago is not necessarily true today," recalls the deputy editor of AFP.
"There are changes of position and on this point, one obviously thinks of the position of the authorities on the wearing of the mask in France. It is a major point of tension and which feeds a lot of false information", says Grégoire Lemarchand.
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"You have to be humble and say: 'this is what we know'"
So how do you do a review article when the subject is changing every day? "There is not necessarily the truth", warns the journalist. "You have to be humble and not say to people: 'You did not understand anything, you are stupid and stupid to believe anything', but say 'that at this stage of the work of the experts and of the acquired knowledge on the virus, this is what we know '", explains Grégoire Lemarchand. "We give the stage of knowledge by explaining that things can vary and may vary in the future," he says at the microphone of Europe 1.
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"There are lots of people asking themselves questions and coming to us"
But does fact-checking work really work, as mistrust of the media continues to grow? "You will always have a minority of people who will be convinced that you are lying to them, but it is a minority", answers Grégoire Lemarchand. "There are plenty of people asking themselves questions and coming to us. There are still plenty of people who follow us, encourage us and push us to do more", assures the journalist, who wants to be confident for the 'to come up. "Even if sometimes a little bit discouraging, we must not think that this is a losing battle," he concludes.