Ebook
Verification Handbook
European Journalism Centre, edited by Craig Silverman
Three free editions from working journalists: breaking-news verification, investigative reporting, and disinformation. The methods hold; the 2014 and 2015 tool chapters do not. The hosting site has been unreliable.
The European Journalism Centre has published three handbooks: the 2014 original on verifying user-generated content in emergencies, the 2015 edition on investigative reporting with online research, company records, and ethics, and the 2020 edition on disinformation and media manipulation, covering accounts, bots, closed groups, websites, ads, and network analysis. Contributors come from the BBC, Storyful, ProPublica, and newsrooms worldwide.
The hosting platform returned server errors on every path we tried in October 2026. The legacy site loads and the chapters exist in web archives. Try the links; if they fail, come back later.
Worth it if
- You verify user-generated content in a newsroom or an NGO
- You investigate disinformation campaigns and need methods from people who have
- You want ethics and process written for editors, not only for analysts
Skip it if
- You need tool instructions; the 2014 and 2015 tool chapters are mostly dead
- You want corporate or cyber OSINT
What is inside
- 01
2014: Emergency coverage
When news breaks; verification fundamentals; verifying user content, images, and video; crowds; disaster preparation; a verification process and checklists; tools. Later additional materials on fakes and workflow are attached.
- 02
2015: Investigative reporting
Open-source information in investigations; researching the who, where, and when of a person; research tools; corporate veils and company records; databases; human rights and war crimes; ethics; presenting content; organising a newsroom.
- 03
2020: Disinformation and media manipulation
Information disorder and the manipulation lifecycle; investigating accounts, patient zero, bots, breaking-news fakes, images, deepfakes; closed groups and messaging apps, websites, ads, cross-platform tracking, network analysis and attribution.
What you will be able to do
- Run a verification checklist on a photo, a video, or an account under deadline
- Investigate a social media account and its network for inauthentic behaviour
- Trace company ownership through public records in several jurisdictions
- Write an ethics-aware process your newsroom can adopt
How current it is
The 2020 edition predates the shutdown of major platform research tools and APIs, so several platform-specific methods have aged. The verification habits and the 2015 investigative framing still hold. The publisher is active, but its platform was returning errors when checked.
- Updated
- Third edition 2020
- Maintained
- Updated now and then
How to get the most from it
- 01
Read the 2020 edition first
It is the most current and assumes the earlier two.
- 02
Use the 2014 checklists, skip its tools
The checklists are the durable part.
- 03
Keep an archived copy
Given the hosting trouble, save the PDFs when you can reach them.
Strengths
- Written by working journalists
- Three complementary editions
- Translations
Limitations
- Hosting unreliable
- Tool chapters dated
- License unclear
Pair it with
- ReadNewsletterFree + paidAll levels
Digital Digging
A contributor's active newsletter on the same craft.
- ReadEbookFreeBeginnerArchived
First Draft Essential Guides
Shorter primers from a sister organisation, archived.
- ReadCourseFreeIntermediate
DFRLab Digital Sherlocks
Free live training on disinformation for eligible researchers.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Which edition should I read?
The 2020 disinformation edition for current work. The 2015 edition is the most directly about OSINT technique, with dated tools. The 2014 edition for its checklists.
Is a free account required?
We could not confirm either way because the host was down. Historically the PDFs were open downloads.
Learned the method? Practise it on real data
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