About this site

Citizen Fact Check, dedicated to fact checking, is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka to be established by a local media network. Citizen Fact Check launched its beta version on March 1, 2021 to scrutinize and research for veracity and identify the context of viral social media posts on various platforms. These include but are not limited to statements made by individuals in public life and other data that is in the public domain. By April 2, 2021 Citizen Fact Check became a separate website apart from its sister site Citizen.lk which earlier hosted the Citizen Fact Check widget.

Citizen Fact Check (www.citizenfactcheck.lk) is an initiative and fact checking unit of Sri Lankan digital media house Citizen Media Network, which also holds ownership of Citizen.lk and Your News.

Citizen Media Network is located at 96, 8A Kottanuwatta Road, Nugegoda 10250 , Sri Lanka and is registered as a private limited company (Company Registration No. PV 00240614) under the Sri Lanka Companies Act No 7 of 2007.

Funding

March 2020 – Citizen Fact Check was launched last year and the initial funding required was provided by Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd a Creative, Digital Content, Video Production & Digital Marketing Communications Agency which previously held ownership of its media arm the Citizen.lk website. The company provided 100 per cent of the funding without any conditions to commence the operations of Citizen Fact Check and maintain its operations for a period of two year after being convinced of the merits of the new service. The funding support extended to all costs relating to hiring and salaries of staff. Initial Citizen Fact Check operations were also supported by staff from Citizen.lk.

Digital Content is registered as a private limited company (Company Registration No. PV 114736) under the Sri Lanka Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Its directors are Arjun Jeger and Chamila Prasad Karunarathne . Its accounts are audited by an external auditor annually and any public who is interested can be access via registered of companies.

June 2021 – Citizen Media Network was formed and was registered as a private limited company (Company Registration No. PV 00240614) under the Sri Lanka Companies Act No 7 of 2007 bringing in all media related units under the ownership Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd. under the banner of Citizen Media Network and making it a distinct company from Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd. This was done to ensure better transparency and editorial independence. All editorial decisions are made by the Editor in Chief. Any attempt to exert undue influence is not tolerated. One additional staff member has joined the team since.

Going Forward – While initial funding provided by Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd is set to end in March 2023, Citizen Media Network expects to adopt a model of funding where 50 per cent of the necessary funds will be borne by Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd. while the remainder will be secured through various grant opportunities, third party fact checking service , public funding and advertising.