Madeline Roache
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Managing Editor, UK @NewsGuardRating | ex freelance journalist and fact-checker @Time
Articles by Madeline Roache
Influence Campaign on TikTok Uses AI Videos to Boost Hungary’s Orbán Ahead of Crucial Elections
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Support us by becoming a premium member or sharing our work.
New Kremlin-Linked Influence Campaign Targeting Moldovan Elections Draws 17 Million Views on X and Infects AI Models
Welcome to Reality Check, a newsletter that helps you keep track of the false claims and online conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them.
Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims
Welcome to Reality Check, your inside look at how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it. Our work is more important than ever. Please support us by becoming a Premium Member.
Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims
A full version of this report is available through NewsGuard’s Reality Check. By Eva Maitland and Madeline Roache | Published on Feb. 21, 2025 As the war in Ukraine approaches the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion that launched the conflict, NewsGuard has now identified and debunked 302 false claims relating to the war, nearly all of them originating as Russian propaganda.
Liberals Push False Smallpox Claim to Undermine RFK Jr.
Welcome to Reality Check, your inside look at how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it. Our work is more important than ever. Please support us by becoming a Member. NEW: NewsGuard is now live on BlueSky.
How misinformation affects the U.K’s older populations
Perspectives from older adults, ageing-focused volunteers and NewsGuard’s media literacy team. Download the PDF of the report here. By Madeline Roache, Eva Maitland, and Veena McCoole | Published on August 29, 2023 Introduction NewsGuard has found that older people have been targeted by health misinformation, including false claims about dementia, cancer and COVID-19 vaccines. Click here to read the full myths and debunks, where we have made 10 false claims available to the public.
Israel-Hamas War Misinformation Tracking Center
Last updated Oct. 19, 2023 Within hours of Palestinian militant group Hamas carrying out an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a barrage of misinformation relating to the conflict blanketed social media and websites, reaching tens of millions of people. To date, NewsGuard’s global team of misinformation analysts have identified 21 myths spreading across X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and on websites.
Another Tech 'Innovation' With Unintended Consequences
As mentioned above, sites advancing Kremlin propaganda aren’t the only ones benefiting from programmatic advertising delivered by Western ad-tech providers. Previous NewsGuard reviews have shown that some of the world’s most trusted brands inadvertently fund misinformation about important topics ranging from COVID-19 to U.S. elections.
One Year, Fifty Films: Russian Propaganda Documentaries Spread on YouTube, Despite Ban
With Jones’ help, the Russian propaganda films have garnered tens of thousands of views on YouTube. For example, the RT documentary “Fast Forward to Fascism,” which repeats the false narrative that Ukraine has systematically targeted ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine, and juxtaposes scenes of 1940s Nazi Germany with modern-day Ukraine, has drawn approximately 50,000 views since Jones posted it on his channel in November 2022.
UK Special Report: The Best and Worst of 2022
UK Special Report: The Best and Worst of 2022 NewsGuard’s Top Ten UK ‘Misinformers’ and Top Ten ‘Trustworthy and trending’ With The Most Online Engagement (Looking for the US version of this report? Click here.) By Madeline Roache and Eva Maitland In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, misinformation about the war flooded UK news sites and social media feeds, including claims that sought to justify the war, to cover for Russia’s atrocities, and to discredit Ukraine.
1 Billion Views: TikTok Videos Promote Russian Mercenary Group, Despite Platform Rules
TikTok searches steer users to the carnage NewsGuard also found that TikTok’s algorithm appears to push users toward violent Wagner Group content.
Misinformation Monitor: June 2022
Nearly 100 websites that were identified by NewsGuard in 2021 to be spreading misinformation about COVID-19 are now disseminating false claims about the war in Ukraine on social media, with some still generating revenue from digital advertising. A new analysis by NewsGuard shows that 91 websites that appear in NewsGuard’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center have now also spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine.
Misinformation Monitor: April 2022
Misinformation Monitor: April 2022 Welcome back to NewsGuard’s Misinformation Monitor, our newsletter tracking misinformation with exclusive data from six countries. Sign up to get the Misinformation Monitor in your inbox or download NewsGuard for your browser.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 21, 2022
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Thursday, April 21, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 20, 2022
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 19, 2022
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program. The Ukrainian army used heavy artillery in Donbas There are reports that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling areas of the Donetsk Republic.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 18, 2022
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Monday, April 18, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 15, 2022
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Friday, April 15, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. Missile cruiser “Moskva” sank while being towed According to the Ministry of Defense, “Moskva” sank during a storm. Due to serious damage to the hull, the ship lost its stability and capsized.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 14, 202
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Wednesday April 14, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war: April 13, 202
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Wednesday April 13, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that there is a new planned provocation by the Kiev regime Our Ministry of Defense warned that the Kiev authorities are preparing a new provocation.
Russian-state TV coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war
Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Tuesday April 12, 2022. By Madeline Roache What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of the top stories about the Russia-Ukraine war from a morning program on Russia’s state TV Channel One. Eleven people were injured in the Donetsk Republic as a result of shelling by Ukrainian security forces. Nine of the victims were residents of Mariupol. This was reported by the Joint Center for Control on the ceasefire.
After a slew of scandals, will British voters stand by Johnson?
London, United Kingdom – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s grip on power is yet again being questioned over new reports of a rule-breaking drinks party in the Downing Street rose garden.
Russia's Last Political Freedoms Are on the Way Out
Memorial, Russia’s most prominent human rights organization, is a symbol of the freedoms gained by dissidents with communism’s fall in 1991 and of the struggle to retain those freedoms in increasingly repressive post-Soviet Russia. Founded in January 1989, Memorial has built a database of more than 2.6 million victims of Soviet repression, identified perpetrators of Soviet-era political crimes, and defended victims of human rights abuses and political repression.
Boris Johnson: Can the UK’s prime minister hold on to power?
London, United Kingdom – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has often been described as a “teflon leader”. Over his past two years in office, he has managed to avoid multiple scandals from sticking to his reputation.
China committed genocide against Uighur Muslims, tribunal rules
London, United Kingdom – The Chinese government has committed genocide, crimes against humanity and torture against Uighurs and other minorities in its western province of Xinjiang, an unofficial and independent UK-based tribunal has ruled. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the head of the Uighur Tribunal and prominent human rights lawyer, said the Chinese government has targeted the Muslim Uighur population with forced birth control and sterilisation policies in order to reduce the group’s population.
Death at the EU border: Migrants pay the price of Belarus’s ‘hybrid warfare’
After living through a decade of conflict in Syria, Boushra believed she was finally going to find safety in Europe. The 48-year-old teacher thought her journey from Syria would be easy. She would fly, via Lebanon, to Belarus. From the Belarusian capital, Minsk, she would drive several hours to the border and cross by foot into Poland. Then she would get a train to Belgium to be reunited with her brother, who has been living there since 2018.
In the Standoff Between Belarus and Europe, Migrants Are Being Used as Human Weapons
Nights are a particularly dangerous time for migrants stranded without shelter in the forest that lies on the border between Poland and Belarus. Families who have made the treacherous journey from war-torn states including Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen are forced to wrap themselves in damp sleeping bags and huddle together for warmth as temperatures plummet.
Ser chinês à força, de Xinjiang à Mongólia Interior
21 agosto 2021 23:53 Charlie Campbell, em Xangai (texto), Madeline Roache, em Londres (texto), Sofia Miguel Rosa (infografia) 21 agosto 2021 23:53 Charlie Campbell, em Xangai (texto), Madeline Roache, em Londres (texto), Sofia Miguel Rosa (infografia) Em julho de 2017 o pai de Gulzira Auelkhan adoeceu. A filha decidiu fazer a curta viagem da aldeia onde vive no Cazaquistão até à sua China natal. Quando chegou à zona ocidental da província de Xinjiang foi presa sem motivo aparente.
Journalists fear UK’s proposed changes to Official Secrets Act
London, United Kingdom – The collaboration between whistle-blowers and journalists has for years led to major revelations about corruption and the abuse of power in the United Kingdom. In 2013, journalists exposed the scale of mass surveillance carried out by Western governments through documents leaked by the National Security Agency (NSA) dissident, Edward Snowden. In 2009, the media uncovered how Members of Parliament abused the parliamentary expenses system.
Abuse and torture in Egyptian prisons fuels ISIL recruitment
In the last six months of Mohamed Soltan’s prison sentence, he was placed in isolation in Egypt’s notorious Torah Prison, where he was beaten and tortured mentally and physically every day. “I was completely cut off from the rest of the world, with no access to daylight or sense of time,” he said. Only jailed members of the armed group ISIL (ISIS) had access to his cell – and they attempted to recruit him.
How Russian Athletes Are Trying to Compete in the Olympics
Russian long jumper Darya Klishina says has been waiting for her Olympic moment since she was 16 years old, when was professionally training in Moscow, some 112 miles from her small hometown of Tver. Even though she will compete in a half-filled stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions, she expects it to feel more celebratory than her experience at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she was the only Russian track and field athlete granted permission to compete by World Athletics (WA).
The Unorthodox Priest Leading Poland's Fight for LGBTQ Rights
A man dressed as a priest particpates in Szymon Niemiec participates in a Gay Pride Parade in Warsaw, Poland on June 13, 2009 Credit - Janek Skarzynski—AFP via Getty Images This year, like every year for the past 20, Szymon Niemiec will wear a rainbow-colored stole at the Equality Parade in the Polish capital of Warsaw on June 19. “I won’t have a banner because I will be leading the entire parade. I can’t keep my hands full,” says Niemiec.
Russian State Media Is Throwing Shade at Biden's 'Childish' Tie
As U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met for their first, much anticipated summit in Geneva, Switzerland Wednesday, Russian state media put aside the many issues between the two leaders to talk about the real power dynamics on display: the leaders’ choice of ties.
What to Expect from the Biden-Putin Summit Original
On June 16, U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to meet face to face for the first time since Biden became president in January. The summit in Geneva, Switzerland is to take place after relations between the U.S. and Russia recently hit “rock bottom”, says Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served on the White House National Security Council under President Barack Obama.
Inside the fight to provide abortion in Poland
Justyna Wydrzyńska understands how lonely it can be for women seeking an abortion in Poland. She had an unwanted pregnancy in 2006, a time when reliable and unbiased information about abortions was hard to come by. Wydrzyńska eventually terminated her pregnancy with Women on Web, an international NGO that sends abortion pills to women living in countries where access is restricted.
What Biden's Recognition of Armenian Genocide Means to Armenian-Americans
Armenian-Americans have welcomed President Joe Biden’s historic declaration that the killing and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I constituted genocide as a long overdue yet positive step in reckoning with history. “We affirm the history,” Biden said on April 24.
Alexei Navalny Is Moved To Hospital As Health Deteriorates Original
Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition figure and Kremlin antagonist, has been moved into a prison hospital, Russia’s state penitentiary service (FSIN) said on Monday, after doctors warned he was in extremely poor health and could have only days to live. But friends and colleagues called the transfer a Kremlin “ploy” to convince the world he was being treated, and that his life was still very much in danger.
How Russia Is Stepping Up Its Campaign to Control the Internet
On March 10, photos and videos on Twitter were loading more slowly than usual for users in Russia. It was not a network fault or server error but a deliberate move by Russia’s state internet regulator Roskomnadzor to limit traffic to the social media site, in what experts say was the first public use of controversial new technology that the Russian authorities introduced after 2019.
COVID-19 Cases Are Rising in Europe, and the Vaccine Rollout Is Lagging. How Did It All Go So Badly Wrong?
© Michal Cizek/AFP—Getty Images Nurses push a COVID-19 patient in his bed in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Stod, Czech Republic, on Feb. 25, 2021 Europe was one of the first regions to be hit hard by COVID-19 last spring. In mid-May 2020, the World Health Organization declared it the “epicenter” of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined.
The Women Combatting Russia's Domestic Violence Epidemic
As Nastya waits for her husband Kirill to come home from work, thoughts run through her head. She smooths the creases from the tablecloth and lays the table in the dimly lit kitchen of their apartment in Moscow, careful to place the knife and fork perfectly straight next to Kirill’s plate. “Sometimes he loses his temper, but no one’s perfect,” she thinks.
Bellingcat Has Revealed War Crimes in Syria and Unmasked Russian Assassins. Founder Eliot Higgins Says He's Just Getting Started
© Tolga Akmen — AFP via Getty Images Eliot Higgins, founder of online investigation group Bellingcat, speaks to the media on College Green in London on October 9, 2018 after making a presentation in parliament on their investigation into the suspects of the Sergei Skripal poisoning. Eliot Higgins starts and ends his days like many others in 2021.
Alexei Navalny's Chief of Staff Predicts He Will Be Released 'Sooner Than Many Are Expecting'
Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny and his colleagues have had an especially turbulent past few months. Last August, Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning by a nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin. He spent five months recovering in Berlin, while working on a would-be-viral video exposé, alleging that President Vladimir Putin owns a $1.3 billion palace, financed by members of his inner circle (Putin denies this). Navalny’s arrest on his return to Moscow on Jan.
'The Whole System Needs Changing.' The Russia Protests Are About More Than Just Alexey Navalny
© Sergey Ponomarev—The New York Times/Redux Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a rally in Moscow Jan. 31. Marina Shakhov never took to the streets to voice her opposition against President Vladimir Putin until recently. In the protests that began on Jan. 23 and repeated the following weekend, the 31-year-old sales representative marched with several hundred people, braving temperatures of 3F in the Siberian city of Tomsk.
The Inside Story of How Navalny Uncovered Putin's Palace
Two days after Alexey Navalny, head of Russia’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was arrested on his return to Moscow from Berlin, he released a video expose that shocked Russians and people around the world. In the video, “Putin’s palace.
Putin Warns Big Tech Poses a Threat to 'Legitimate Democratic Institutions.'
© Mikhail Klimentyev —TASS via Getty Images Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses Davos Agenda 2021, a virtual event of the World Economic Forum (WEF), via a video link from Moscow's Kremlin. Putin addresses the forum for the first time since 2009.
Russia Protests: 3,000 Detained in Anti-Putin Demonstrations Original
Russian police have detained more than 3,700 people across the country according to OVD-Info, a Moscow-based NGO monitoring rallies, as anti-government protests surged in about 100 cities and towns on Saturday. Thousands of people took to the streets from Moscow to the Far East, battling the bitter cold, in some of the largest protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin in years.
'His Fight Is in Russia.' Why Navalny Flew Home Straight Into Putin's Clutches Original
Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny flew straight into the hands of the Russian police on Jan. 17 when he returned from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from an assassination attempt that he and his supporters blamed on the Kremlin. Police detained Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, at border control on Sunday evening at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
‘Do I cry about it? Yes’: In UK, COVID stretches ICUs to limit
London, United Kingdom – When the pandemic struck the UK in March last year, Peter was not too worried about catching COVID. “I was healthy and fastidiously followed the restrictions,” he told Al Jazeera from his home in Sussex, a southeastern county. The 55-year-old social worker says he had not seen a doctor in 20 years and taken just a handful of sick days in his 35 years of work. But in early April, he came down with flu-like symptoms and his health quickly deteriorated.
Who Will Be The Next Leader of Angela Merkel's CDU Party?
Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of Germany’s most influential leaders and a standard setter for Europe for 16 years. Now the party that kept her at the helm of Europe’s largest economy must decide who might fill her shoes. The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has led Germany‘s federal government for the past 15 years, will elect a new leader at a virtual congress on Jan. 15 and 16.
UK: Some Britons prepare to break Christmas lockdown rules
Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities. London, United Kingdom – It would be “inhuman”, he said last week. But on December 19, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson banned gatherings on Christmas for millions of people living in England following a spike in coronavirus cases. The move came as a new strain of COVID, up to 70 percent more transmissible than earlier variants, gripped parts of the country.
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