About us | Ethics
Presidency
Catherine Riva
Serena Tinari
We are two experienced investigative journalists that specialize in investigating health and medicine. Authors of the GIJN Guide “Investigating Health & Medicine”, we have trained many journalists and are regularly invited as guest speakers by universities and journalism organizations. Our investigations have been disseminated in a variety of mainstream media outlets (press, television, books) and published in peer-reviewed medical journals (The BMJ, BMJ-EBM, The Lancet, JoSPI). Our work has been the recipient of several awards. Catherine won the Suva Media Prize and the Media Prize of the Swiss Academies of Sciences (medicine). She also received the Nicolas Bouvier Prize (Special Jury Prize) with Sept.info. Serena won the jury prize at the Daniel Pearl Awards and was a finalist for the IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) Gold Medal. She also received from CICAP (Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences) the In difesa della Ragione award.
Board of Directors
Alessandra Di Pietro
Alessandra was born in Sicily, studied political science in Catania and journalism in Milan (Italy). In the Nineties, she moved to Rome and reported for “I Siciliani”, “Avvenimenti” and “L’Unità” on civil rights, organized crime and corruption and later on biopolitics for the feminist magazine “noidonne”. 1998-2005 she was a communication specialist for equal opportunities’ political institutions. Since then, she’s back to journalism. The author of four books, she has since been writing features on politics and society for high circulation periodicals. She’s currently an editor with a Rai 1 popular TV program.
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Eva Pedrelli
Eva is based in Bologna (Italy) and has been working for over 20 years as radio and video journalist, and as producer and stringer. For 7 years she has covered the area of Southeast Asia and beyond for many international networks (among others: CBS RadioNetwork, Swiss public broadcaster, Rai Tv and Radio, SBS Australia, “La Repubblica”). She is also experienced as interpreter, organizer and is strong in problem solving and finding innovative models. A native Italian speaker, Eva Pedrelli is proficient in English and French, can handle a conversation in Spanish, Thai, German and is currently learning Indonesian.
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Aleksandra Roth-Belkova
Aleksandra was born in St. Petersburg (Russia), where she studied at the State Academy of Arts and Design (specialization in glass). After moving to Berlin (Germany), she studied visual communication and design at the UdK. From 2000 to 2006 she was senior art director at the agency Scholz & Friends in Berlin. Today she works as a freelancer in the field of art direction, graphic design and concept. Her work has been awarded with several prizes. Since 2016, she is the president of The Glass Project, where she curates several art projects.
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Financial auditor: Urs Wyss Buchhaltungsbüro More
Re-Check relies on the advice of an International Advisory Board. Its members are professional investigative journalists, academics, patient’s safety advocates.
These persons have no conflicts of interest in the field of health and medicine. They do advise Re-Check pro bono.
Tatiana Bazzichelli
Tatiana Bazzichelli is the founder, programme director and curator of Disruption Network Lab; examining the intersection of politics, technology and society, Disruption Lab focuses on exposing the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful by prompting digital rights advocates, investigative journalists, whistleblowers, artists, hacktivists, and critical thinkers to enter into dialogue. A PhD in Information and Media Studies, Bazzichelli has taught classes and given lectures about hacktivism and digital culture in many institutions. She was born in Italy and is since 2003 based in Berlin (Germany).
Jérôme Biollaz
Jérôme Biollaz is Clinical pharmacology Professor Emeritus at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He has worked tirelessly to promote rational and optimal therapeutic strategies in all areas of prescription and to make the medical profession, the public and the media aware of the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on research and prescribing. Biollaz was involved in pre- and post-graduate teaching at both the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy. He was for years a member of the Swiss Federal Medicines Commission and of Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) Clinical Research Ethics Commission.
Maryanne Demasi
For over a decade, Maryanne Demasi worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and for Channel 7. A former medical scientist, she completed a PhD in Rheumatology and has co-authored several scientific studies. Maryanne was awarded the National Press Club of Australia prize in 2008, 2009 & 2011 for “Excellence in Health Journalism”. Today she works as a medical investigative journalist, with bylines, among other media, on the British Medical Journal. Her Substack hosts her original investigations in the field of health and medicine. Her work focuses on holding governments and public health authorities to account, investigating medical advice, and remaining independent of Big Pharma.
Juan Gervas
Juan Gervas is a Spanish retired general practitioner and former visiting professor and honorary professor of Public Health in Madrid and Baltimore (Johns Hopkins). His academic work focuses on the excesses in medicine, with accent on prevention and on investigating public health systems. Since 1980 coordinator of Equipo CESCA, a scientific group for in-depth research and analysis in the field of primary care, Gervas is founder and board member of Nogracias, an organization that fights for transparency in the relationships between medical doctors and pharmaceutical companies.
Nils Hanson
Nils Hanson is an investigative editor best known for Bulletproofing Your Story, a system for quality control from the beginning to the end of a project. Also called Line by line editing, Hanson’s system includes a thorough fairness check and has been implemented by investigative newsrooms worldwide. For 15 years editor-in-chief of the Swedish public broadcaster (SVT’s) weekly “Uppdrag Granskning” (Mission Investigate), Hanson is today a lecturer in investigative journalism standards and ethics and continues to work as investigative editor for SVT.
Ray Moynihan
Now a bush regenerator, Ray Moynihan was Assistant Professor at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Australia, with a global reputation for tackling the problems of too much medicine, and commercial distortion of science. A former investigative journalist, Ray’s written four books, including «Selling Sickness». A one-time Harkness fellow at Harvard University, he’s published ground-breaking research and delivered journalism-training in the US and Australia. He helped create the Preventing Overdiagnosis conferences and has led a BMJ initiative for more independence from industry in medical research, education and practice.
Geneviève Rail
Geneviève Rail is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute of Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). She has taught courses related to women’s bodies, physical activity and health at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences from 1991 to 2009. Since then, she has been Principal and then Professor at Concordia University. Author of over 100 articles or book chapters on biopolitics, public health, women’s bodies and health practices, her research focuses on feminist critiques of health sciences, pharmaceutical industries, and health care systems.
Kim Witczak
Kim Witczak is an international drug safety advocate and speaker with over 25 years professional experience in advertising and marketing communications. She became involved in pharmaceutical drug safety issues after the sudden death of her husband due to undisclosed drug side effect. Witczak co-founded Woodymatters, a non-profit dedicated to advocating for a stronger FDA and drug safety system. She was appointed Consumer Representative on the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory Committee in 2016 and is a board member with several non-profit organisations in the field of drugs’ safety.
The mission of Re-Check is to practice and promote investigative journalism in the field of health and medicine.
Re-Check contributes to projects that are at the intersection between academic research and the dissemination of evidence-based information to a wider public.
We believe in transparency and understand investigative journalism as a work in the public interest.
Our ethical charter details our core values and principles.
Re-Check Ethical Charter
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Core Values and Mission
The mission of Re-Check is to practice and promote investigative journalism in the public interest, in the field of health and medicine, and to contribute to projects that are at the intersection between academic research and the dissemination of evidence-based information to a wider public. We believe in transparency and understand investigative journalism as a work in the public interest. We are committed to the right of the public to truth and equity, and work on exposing injustice, flawed messages and hidden bias. All of the values stated here, and the rules set out here, are intended to contribute to that mission. Integrity is the cornerstone of Re-Check. Our content must be accurate, thorough, complete and fair. We apply to our work the journalistic ethics as described by the Swiss Declaration of the Duties and Rights of the Journalist.
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Publication Terms
Information submitted to Re-Check will be processed and analyzed by journalists registered with the Swiss Professional Register (PR), who thus apply to their work journalistic ethics (Swiss Declaration of the Duties and Rights of the Journalist). This Code of ethics in journalism will be the basis to determine whether or not the information will be published and if so, in what form. Information will be accordingly disseminated in an ethical and not uncontrolled manner.
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Verification and Corrections
Our credibility is built on honest, accurate, fair and thorough investigative journalism. We take great care to verify our work and our analyses represent our best independent judgment. We strive to identify all the sources of our information, shielding them with anonymity only when they insist upon it and when they provide vital information, not opinion or speculation, and when there is no other way to obtain that information. To the extent that we can, we identify in our stories any important bias a source may have. If the story hinges on documents, we describe how the documents were obtained. We take all challenges to the integrity of our reports seriously and when mistakes are made, they will be promptly corrected and acknowledged in a timely, explicit, complete, and transparent manner. When we cannot corroborate information, we will say so.
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Fairness
We do not misidentify or misrepresent ourselves to get a story. We do not pay for interviews. We do not plagiarize. Whenever we portray someone in a negative light, we make a real effort to obtain a response from that person. We give people and organizations a reasonable amount of time to get back to us before we publish. All sources will be treated with courtesy and respect. We are committed to using special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
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Transparency
Re-Check does not contribute, directly or indirectly, to political campaigns or to political parties or groups seeking to raise money for political campaigns or parties. We do not work on stories, projects, or initiatives with which we have a personal connection, vested interest or financial interest. We disclose any relationships with partners or funders that might appear to influence our coverage. We strive to explain to our audience the process of building our stories and provide raw data and documentation for public consumption.
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Financial accountability
Re-Check does not accept any kind of funding, direct or indirect, by corporations, organizations and individuals that pursue an agenda in the field of health and medicine. We do not accept advertising on our website. We commit to transparently declare any conflict of interest we might have regarding a specific project or publication. We reserve the right to refuse and/or wire back any donations received through PayPal and on our bank account, without having to offer explanations as why so.
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Social media policy
Re-Check will address all civil questions that will be asked through our website or our social media accounts. We won’t engage with users whose goal is slander, libel and defamation.
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International Advisory Board
Re-Check relies on the advice of an International Advisory Board. It consists of individuals that are professional investigative journalists, academics, patient’s safety advocates. The International Advisory Board is not responsible for Re-Check website content, nor it responds legally for any of Re-Check activities. Its members have no conflicts of interest in the field of health and medicine and do advise Re-Check pro bono.
Download our Ethical Charter as a PDF