Aakanksha Sharma

Program Associate,
Internews
India

Dr. Aakanksha Sharma is a media literacy practitioner currently working with Internews.She has her PhD on evaluating Media and Information Literacy competencies of senior secondary school students in India from Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi. She has been a media academic teaching at graduate and postgraduate levels prior to taking up this role. She has presented papers at many places including the 9th UNESCO GAPMIL Conference in Sweden . She has worked closely with communities through Community Radio stations. Aakanksha has also authored research papers and book chapters on new media, media literacy competencies, as well as media policies. Her interest areas are youth and media, de-westernization of media education and media literacy education.Previously, she has also worked with the public broadcaster All India Radio. In her present role she uses her industry and academic experience to create empowerment through information.

Alexios Mantzarlis

News and Information Credibility Lead, 
Google
Italy

Alexios joined joined Google in 2019 as the News and Information Credibility Lead. In this role, he works on product and partnership efforts to counter misinformation, particularly around fact-checking and news credibility signals. Prior to joining Google, Alexios served as the founding director of the International Fact-Checking Network.

Anne Kruger

APAC Director, 
First Draft
Australia

Anne helped to launch First Draft in Asia-Pacific, overseeing CrossCheck Australia for the 2019 federal elections. She rapidly expanded this to cover Australia and New Zealand at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Anne has spent most of her career working in Asia, including as an international journalist and anchor at CNN International Hong Kong, Bloomberg TV, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Radio Corporation Singapore. She was anchor and national correspondent for the iconic Australian program Landline, and fill-in co-host for ABC News Breakfast. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong, Anne set up the award-winning Cyber News Verification Lab in the wake of Occupy Central, collaborating with verification technologists Meedan. Anne also conducted news literacy courses throughout Asia, consulted for UNESCO Asia, and conducted research projects with Google News Labs partners into the misinformation ecosystem of Asia. She is an assessor at the International Fact-Checking Network (Poynter) and a Google News Initiative trainer. She has worked as an ABC multi-platform state Chief of Staff, and producer on the National Digital desk at the ABC’s digital headquarters in Brisbane. Anne completed her PhD in social media verification education in January 2019.

Annette Chen

Advisory Engineer, 
Institute For Information Industry 
Taiwan

Dr. Chen is the project manager of the tool named “Rumor Catcher” at Institute for information industry, Taiwan. Her research interests are in false information, artificial intelligence algorithm, and mathematical models of news propagation. Prior to this, Dr. Chen was with Nortel Networks, US, as a communication solution firm where she led the validation team. Dr. Chen earned a PhD in mathematics and masters in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington, US.

Aribowo Sasmito

Co-Founder & Head of Fact Checking Committee, 
MAFINDO (Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia / Indonesian Anti-hoax Community)
Indonesia

One of the founders of MAFINDO, currently the organization's Head of Fact Checker Committee. Leading the fact-checking team and manages MAFINDO’s various media channels including the turnbackhoax.id website, the database of fact-checked results articles. MAFINDO is a non-profit organization combating false information (or hoax as commonly called in Indonesia), literacy education, and social movements by training and convening with journalists and media, educating consumers of online media, and by building communities of online fact-checkers.

Arjun Narayan

Director of Trust and Safety, APAC, 
TikTok
Singapore

Arjun has more than 17 years of demonstrated track record building, scaling and transforming teams. Arjun is a versatile leader with experience spanning multiple Industry domains from Anti Abuse Operations to Digital transformation. He is starting to scale the APAC Trust & Safety function based out of Singapore. He is deeply passionate about user safety & has made his life mission to engineer trust through infrastructure, processes, products, and policies.

Aya Lowe

APAC News Integrity Partnerships, 
Facebook
Singapore

Aya supports the news partnerships through programs and manages the fact checking partnerships across Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Facebook Aya has over 10 years experience working as a journalist across Middle East and Asia. Her latest role was managing the Philippine bureau for Channel NewsAsia.

Dr. Cait McMahon

Managing Director, 
Dart Centre Asia Pacific
Australia

Dr Cait McMahon OAM is a specialist trauma and journalism psychologist and a world-renowned speaker on psychological trauma as it relates to news gathering. Working with the media profession since 1987 when engaged at The Age newspaper as a staff counsellor, McMahon completed one of the world’s first studies on journalists and trauma in 1993 – a pilot study of print journalists exposed to work related trauma. She completed her PhD on trauma exposed Australian media professionals examining posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth. McMahon is the founding Managing Director of Dart Centre Asia Pacific, a project of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2016 McMahon was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), one of Australia’s highest civil acknowledgements for services to journalists’ mental health and wellbeing.

Carol Soon

Senior Research Fellow,
National University of Singapore; Institute of Policy Studies
Singapore

Dr Carol Soon is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies where she heads the Society and Culture Department. She has a PhD in Communications and New Media from the National University of Singapore. Her research interests are in false information, digital literacy and inclusion, media regulation, new media and activism, and public engagement and deliberation. She has published her research in books and peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Asian Journal of Communication and Public Integrity. She worked with the Ministry of Health in 2017 on Singapore’s first Citizens’ Jury and is currently working with various government agencies on engaging citizens in co-creating policy solutions.

Carol is also Associate Director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship which is supported by Temasek Foundation. She is the Vice Chair of Singapore’s Media Literacy Council and a member of the Industry Advisory Panel for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. She sits on the Civil Service College-Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Partnerships and Engagement Experts Panel. Carol has taught courses at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the University Scholars Programme at NUS.

In 2015, Carol received the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Research Excellence Award. She was also a recipient of the Australian Endeavour Award in 2012. Prior to joining academia, she worked in the corporate sector where she developed communication campaigns for profit and non-profit organisations. Carol is currently a volunteer mentor with Advisory SG and Voices of Asia.

Chris Yeung

Chief Writer,
CitizenNews 
Hong Kong

Chris Yeung is Chief Writer of CitizenNews, an online platform. He is also currently Chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and an organiser of Fact Check Hong Kong.

Clair Deevy

Director of Public Policy,
Whatsapp
Singapore

Clair Deevy was appointed as Director of Public Policy for WhatsApp in 2019, she joined Facebook in 2015 and was previously Director of Community Affairs for Asia Pacific and Latin America. Working in the field of policy, communications and community partnerships for more than 20 years Clair’s professional and volunteer experience includes work in Government, NGOs, private sector and corporate foundations.

As Director of WhatsApp Clair develops and supports WhatsApp’s policy strategy and engagement throughout the world working with a cross-functional global team. Clair also manages strategic outreach to a wide variety of stakeholders across all sectors around issues and opportunities related to WhatsApp.

Previously with Microsoft for 10 years Clair’s spent most of her career there leading Microsoft’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs in Asia Pacific. Clair has developed a deep knowledge in the areas of digital and financial literacy, community engagement, women’s empowerment, and creating partnerships to create opportunities for positive social impact Clair holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Management, a Master of Management, is a qualified Partnership Broker and in 2014 was appointed an Ambassador for Women in Technology for UNWomen Singapore Committee.

Claire Wardle

Executive Director,
First Draft
United States

Dr. Claire Wardle is a leading expert on user generated content, verification and misinformation. She is co-founder and director of First Draft, the world’s foremost nonprofit focused on research and practice to address mis- and disinformation. In 2017 she co-authored a report for the Council of Europe entitled, Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policymaking. Dr. Wardle is a co-founder and Executive Chair of First Draft, the world’s foremost nonprofit focused on research and practice to address mis- and disinformation. Previously, Dr. Wardle was a Research Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy, and also the Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School. She has worked with newsrooms and humanitarian organizations around the world, providing training and consultancy on digital transformation. Dr. Wardle earned a PhD in communications and an MA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. She is based in New York City.

Craig Silverman

Media Editor,
BuzzFeed News
Canada

Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author and one of the world's leading experts on online disinformation, fake news, and digital investigations. He is the media editor of BuzzFeed News where he covers platforms, online disinformation, and media manipulation.

Cristina Tardaquila

Associate Director,
International Fact-Checking Network
United States

Cris Tardáguila is IFCN’s Associate Director. She was born in Brazil and has lived in Rio de Janeiro for most of her life. Since 2014, Cris has dedicated her professional life to verification. She is the founder of Agência Lupa, the first fact-checking initiative in her country, and also responsible for LupaEducação, its educational branch.

Dewi Sari

Chief Operating Officer,
MAFINDO
Indonesia

Dewi Sari is Chief Operating Officer of Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia (Indonesian Anti-Hoax Society) since 2018. Previously, she was a member of the MAFINDO Board / Presidium. Dewi Sari specializes in organization matters and human resources’ issue. Dewi Sari is a graduated from Faculty of Law and had worked at a National Oil and Gas company for years, and had worked for 2 years at Law Firm as a young attorney at year 2000. Getting involve at MAFINDO is a tremendous challenge for her.

Edson Tandoc

Assoc Prof,
Nanyang Technological University 
Singapore

Edson C. Tandoc Jr. is an Associate Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an Associate Editor of Digital Journalism and Human Communication Research. He is also the author of Analyzing Analytics: Disrupting Journalism One Click at a Time (Routledge, 2019). His research focuses on the impact of emerging technologies on news production and consumption. His latest projects focus on understanding the issue of fake news and can be found on the Information Integrity Initiative website: blogs.ntu.edu.sg/in/

Elisabeth Wilhelm

Health Communications Specialist,
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
USA

Elisabeth leads the US CDC Global Immunization Division's vaccine misinformation and infodemic management implementation research and evaluation work in Indonesia and Kenya in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO, health authorities, and in Indonesia, with IFCN member organization Mafindo. She supports the WHO infodemic unit's global and regional work to establish the global health research agenda on infodemic management, serves on several UN agency and global partner advisory committees on immunization, communication and digital engagement. Day to day, she is focused on capacity development and and co-creating innovative behavior change communication interventions to promote healthy behaviors in immunizations and in outbreak responses with a primary focus on low and middle income countries.

Eoghan Sweeney

Consultant/ Trainer, 
OSINT Essentials  
Germany

Eoghan Sweeney is an independent consultant and trainer specialising in the verification of online content and information, with more than two decades of experience in print, broadcast and online media. He spent six years with groundbreaking social media news agency Storyful, where he was part of a core team that developed industry-leading techniques, systems and practices in monitoring, discovery and verification of online content. He followed this with a year and a half as Global Training Director with First Draft, where he created and delivered training workshops for the not-for-profit organisation, as well as in cooperation with Google News Initiative, Facebook Journalism Project and others. He provides training and education in this field, as well as digital security, to media outlets, NGO staff, activists and others, and created and maintains OSINT Esssentials (osintessentials.com), a website dedicated to introducing important tools, services and concepts in online investigative work.

Eric Wishart

Special Projects Editor,
AFP
Hong Kong

Eric is a former editor-in-chief of AFP and is now reponsible for editorial special projects. He also teaches journalism at Hong Kong and Hong Baptist Universities.

Eun Ryung Chong

Director, 
SNU Fact Check Center
South Korea

EunRyung Chong PhD is the inaugural director of the SNU FactCheck Center, the first and largest web platform for professional fact-checkers in South Korea. Her research lies at the intersection of fact-checking, preventing disinformation, and journalism education. Chong worked for 19 years as reporter and editor at Dong-A Daily, a leading newspaper.

Htaike Htaike Aung

Executive Director, 
Myanmar ICT for Development Organisation
Myanmar

Htaike Htaike Aung is the Executive Director of Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), which she co-founded in 2012. Htaike is a policy wonk with a passion for the open web and internet freedom, trying to shape digital rights policy through advocacy.

Irene Jay Liu

News Lab Lead, APAC, 
Google 
Singapore

Irene Jay Liu leads Google News Lab in the Asia-Pacific region. She was previously an investigative reporter and data editor at Reuters, where she was a 2017 Pulitzer finalist in the national reporting category. Earlier, she worked at the South China Morning Post and as a political reporter with the Times Union in Albany, New York. Before relocating to Singapore, she taught data-driven investigative journalism at the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Jack Berkefeld

Research Reporter, 
First Draft 
Australia

Jack is a research reporter for First Draft's APAC bureau based out of Sydney, Australia where he tracks and investigates online mis and disinformation information trends in the country as well in the broader region. In 2019 he travelled to Indonesia to attend a conference exploring local efforts against misinformation and advised visiting Australian students on writing stories about the country. Jack is a recent graduate from the University of Technology Sydney where he recieved a BA of Communications (Journalism) and a BA of International Studies through which he learnt Spanish. Jack has experience in factchecking and investigative work after interning for the ABC's investigative Journalist Unit on their Hidden Campaign project exploring the underhanded tactics of political actors during the 2019 Australian Federal Election.

JaeHo Sung

Association President,  
Korea Broadcasting Journalist Association
South Korea

JaeHo Sung is the president of Korea Broadcasting Journalist Association, and a journalist working in Korean Broadcasting System, the public press of South Korea. He is also a former director of social affairs office in KBS. Working as an investigative journalist, he realized the importance of fact-checking and doing his best to enhance the media literacy of the public.

Joyce Hau

Head of News Content Partnerships, YouTube APAC,
YouTube Asia Pacific
Singapore

Joyce manages partnerships with news organizations for YouTube in Asia Pacific. She leads YouTube’s efforts to elevate authoritative news sources on the video platform in the region, as well as various initiatives to help the news ecosystem thrive on YouTube.

Kanchan Kaur

Dean,
Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media
India

Kanchan Kaur is Dean, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), Bangalore. She is also an India assessor for the International Fact-Checking Network which certifies fact-checking websites. She started her career in journalism by reporting the city of Bangalore for various small newspapers before moving on to the bigger ones like Indian Express, Deccan Herald and The Gulf News. She has driven IIJNM’s emphasis on Multimedia and works on spreading news literacy.

Kathleen Reen

Senior Director Public Policy & Philanthropy, APAC,
Twitter
Singapore

Based at Twitter’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore, Kathleen works with a regional and global team of public policy leads. She was previously a vice-president at Internews, managing global technology and policy programmes, and was based in Washington D.C.

She has experience in Internet policy, philanthropy, developing markets, media and tech, and launched international development media and IT projects across the Asian region from 1999 to 2011 with a focus on South-East and South Asia.

Kathleen is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is a Company Of Good Fellow with Singapore’s National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center.

Kathleen can be found at @kathleenreen on Twitter.

Kayo Mimizuka

Journalist, Core Member of JCEJ,
Japan Center of Education for Journalists
Japan

Kayo is a core member of Japan Center of Education for Journalists, an organization providing training and networking opportunities for journalists. She participated in a collaborative verification project led by JCEJ and initiated translation projects of journalists’ guides on social media coverage and disinformation research. Kayo is currently working towards completing MA of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Her research areas include disinformation, media literacy, new media technology and journalism, and conspiracy theories. Kayo is also a former journalist at Kyodo News Agency. 

Kuang Keng Kuek Ser

Lead Trainer,
Data N
Malaysia

Keng is an award-winning digital journalist, data journalism trainer and media consultant. He has been conducting digital journalism workshops across Asia and providing consulting services to media organizations in data, visual and interactive journalism. In 2019, Keng joined the global efforts to counter online misinformation through the Malaysia Information Literacy Education (MILE), an organization he co-founded that develops and conducts information literacy workshops for Malaysian students and youths.

Masato Kajimoto

Associate Professor of Practice,
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Masato Kajimoto, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Practice at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, the University of Hong Kong. Masato specializes in news literacy education and misinformation ecosystem research in Asia. In 2019 he founded ANNIE (Asian Network of News and Information Educators) to develop teaching and learning materials specific to the region with other likeminded experts in the field.

Mone Saito

Undergraduate student,
Hosei University
Japan

Mone is a undergraduate student of Hosei University, Department of media communication study in Japan. Mone have been researching about fake news and fact-checking. Study abroad to University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies in 2019. Mone have presented the research about fact-checking in Japan at the 11th International Conference on Social Media & Society.

Namnandorj Bayaraa

CEO,
Remo Media
Mongolia

Namnandorj is the founder of Remo Media based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Remo sends daily email newsletter and is dedicated to combating misinformation, improving media literacy education.

Ollie Neas

Editorial Director,
Policy
New Zealand

Ollie is editorial director of Policy, a New Zealand based organisation that makes digital tools to improve election reporting and empower the public to be informed voters. Its election policy comparison tools have been used by hundreds of thousands of voters ahead of local and national elections in New Zealand and Belgium. Ollie also works as an investigative journalist and legal researcher.

Patipat Susumpow

Managing Director,
Opendream
Thailand

Patipat is an engineer and public health practitioner. He co-founded Opendream to democratize problem solvings using digital technology and worked on participatory disease surveillance, safe sex game.

Phansasiri Kularb

Lecturer,
Chulalongkorn University
Thailand

Phansasiri is a journalism lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Her research interests include journalism and political conflict, citizen and civic journalism, and news production culture.

Raimundos Oki

Reporter,
Oekusi Post
Timor-Leste

Raimundos Oki is a freelance journalist and fact-checker based in Dili, Timor-Leste who founded The Oekusi Post and serves as the editor-in-chief. He was a full-time journalist from 2009 to 2018, however, beginning in 2018, he works as a freelance journalist and contributes to the Jiji Press and the Associated Press. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, the Boston Globe, and many more newspapers. He has worked as a correspondent for Tempo, an Indonesian weekly magazine. In 2019, Raimundos was elected as vice president of Timor-Leste Press Union (TLPU) for Domestic Affairs at the fifth TLPU congress.

Raimundos is the recipient of the Balibo Five Fellowship, the UN Reham Al-Farra Fellowship, and the John Doherty Pacific Journalism Fellowship. Currently, he is working on developing Timor-Leste’s first fact-checking site, www.verifikafaktus.net which is available in Tetun and English.

Rashmi Naik

Head - Partnership & Outreach,
IndiaSpend
India

Rashmi Naik leads the outreach efforts and partnerships at IndiaSpend, the country’s first and only data journalism initiative.

She is directs the strategy and product development at IndiaSpend. Along with a team of design and system thinking experts, behavioural sciences professionals and communication specialists, she is responsible for developing and testing formats that have impact and drive scale.

Prior to this, Rashmi was with Omidyar Network, an impact investment firm where she led the investment in media companies including Newslaundry. She has served in the external affairs department at BP, and MasterCard Worldwide.

Saleem Samad

General Secretary,
Forum for Freedom of Expression
Bangladesh

Saleem Samad, is General Secretary of Forum for Freedom of Expression, Bangladesh (FExB). An award winning independent journalist and Bangladesh correspondent for Paris-based international media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), he is a recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship (1991) and Hellman-Hammett Award (2005).

Santi Astuti

Lecturer, Digital Literacy Activist,
Mafindo/The Faculty of Communication Science UNISBA
Indonesia

Santi Indra Astuti is a media/digital literacy activists since 2007. In 2017, she leads R&D Committee of MAFINDO. In the same year, she also co-founded Indonesia Digital Literacy Activists Network (JAPELIDI). She's also a lecturer in the Faculty of Communication Science, Bandung Islamic University (UNISBA), teaching media literacy and media studies. Santi has began her PhD at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Pulau Pinang Malaysia. Last year, she was appointed as supervisor of STOP HOAX Indonesia, a fact checking program dedicated to housewife and young people Indonesia to fight against mis/disinformation. This year, she is responsible to manage TULAR NALAR, a critical thinking program targeted schools and colleges.

Scott Hale

Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow,
Meedan and University of Oxford
Japan

Dr Scott A. Hale is a Director of Research at Meedan, a non-profit building digital tools for global journalism and translation. He sets strategy and oversees research on widening access to quality information online and seeks to foster greater academic–industry collaboration through chairing multistakeholder groups, developing and releasing real-world datasets, and connecting academic and industry organizations. Scott is also a member of the Credibility Coalition, a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute.

Shivalee Kaushik

Project Manager,
DataLEADS
India

Shivalee is the project manager at DataLEADS. She is the project lead for the Google News Initiative India Training Network since July 2018. She has wide experience in the field of research and marketing consulting projects and has been actively involved in guiding nationwide research under her leadership. She has previously worked as Senior Consultant, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.

Summer Hui-Min Chen

Chief Editor,
Taiwan FactCheck Center
Taiwan

Summer Chen is the Chied Editor of Taiwan Factcheck Center.Before being a fact checker, she was a journalist for a daily newspaper. she started to be a fact checker since May 2019.

Susannah Eliott

CEO,
Australian Science Media Centre
Australia

Dr Susannah Eliott is a biologist who turned her attention to the relationship between scientists and journalists more than 20 years ago. She was a Deputy Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program in Sweden in the early 2000s and then helped establish the first Science Media Centre in Australia in 2005. She has a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the University of Technology Sydney and an honorary doctorate in science communication from the University of Adelaide.

Trinna Leong

Teaching Fellow, Southeast Asia,
Google
Malaysia

Trinna runs newsroom trainings for Southeast Asia. A former journalist, Trinna had worked for local and international publications focusing on politics, economy and general news with articles published in Reuters, Al Jazeera and The Straits Times.

Yvonne Chua

Associate Professor,
University of the Philippines, Diliman - Department of Journalism
Philippines

Yvonne T. Chua is an associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines where she teaches journalism ethics, investigative journalism, data journalism and fact-checking. A longtime journalist, Yvonne cofounded the media nonprofit Vera Files, where she started and led various editorial projects from 2008 to early 2019, including the fact-checking initiative Vera Files Fact Check. She coordinated Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative for the 2019 Philippines elections, and initiated and supervises FactRakers for her students’ fact checks. She has done research on disinformation, hate speech and dangerous speech. Yvonne was previously managing editor of the national daily Ang Pahayagang Malaya and training director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She has won a number of reporting awards and a National Book Award for her book-length investigation on corruption in Philippine public education.