For the first time, the UK Defence Journal has made it onto a list of the top ten most trustworthy and popular news websites in the UK as rated by NewsGuard, an information credibility tool.”

NewsGuard rates the credibility of news and information websites and tracks online misinformation.

NewsGuard offers ratings and reviews of news and information websites to help users identify reliable sources of information. The company was founded in 2017 by Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz. It has a team of analysts who assess the credibility of websites based on various criteria, including the use of credible sources, transparency about ownership and financing, and accuracy of content. NewsGuard’s ratings and reviews are intended to help users make informed decisions about the news and information they consume online.

According to their website,

“With 2022 drawing to a close, NewsGuard has compiled lists highlighting some of the most influential UK peddlers of misinformation online, as well as the top sites that met all nine of NewsGuard’s transparency and reliability criteria for the entirety of 2022. To produce these lists, NewsGuard relied on its global ratings of more than 8,500 news and information sites, as well as engagement data provided by NewsWhip, a social media monitoring company.

The site at the top of NewsGuard’s list of “Misinformers” is The Expose (formerly known as Daily Expose), an anonymously-run website that has promoted false and unsubstantiated claims about multiple topics, including the Russia-Ukraine war. For example, a March 2022 article advanced the Russian government’s widely debunked narrative that the U.S. funded bioweapons labs in Ukraine.

NewsGuard’s second year-end list offers hope. Sites that received a perfect 100 NewsGuard score for the entire year and garnered significant engagement include regional news outlet ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk, national publications such as TheGuardian.co.uk, and the volunteer-run site UKDefenceJournal.org.uk, which covers military issues.”

Trustworthy and trending sites, according to NewsGuard

Among the approximately 29 percent of British sites that earned a perfect 100 score from NewsGuard, these 10 received the most social media engagement in 2022. They are listed by engagement, with the most widely shared at number one. This list includes a wide range of sites, including national newspapers, local news sites and even a specialist, volunteer-run site.

  1. ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk: The website of the Manchester Evening News, a daily newspaper covering news in and around Manchester, England.
  2. Independent.co.uk: The website for The Independent, an online newspaper originally founded as a neutral counterbalance to the highly opinionated UK press.
  3. TheGuardian.com: The website of The Guardian, a daily newspaper based in London known for its left-of-centre point of view and investigations into governments, politicians, and companies around the world.
  4. LiverpoolEcho.co.uk: The website of the Liverpool Echo, a daily newspaper providing coverage of Liverpool and Merseyside in the North of England.
  5. BirminghamMail.co.uk: The website of the Birmingham Mail, a tabloid newspaper covering Birmingham, England, and the Black Country and West Midlands regions.
  6. ChronicleLive.co.uk: The website for The Chronicle and The Journal, two daily newspapers based in Newcastle that cover North East England.
  7. WalesOnline.co.uk: The website for the Western Mail and the South Wales Echo, two national newspapers based in Cardiff, Wales.
  8. MyLondon.news: A website providing coverage of London, with a focus on South and West London.
  9. BelfastLive.co.uk: A website providing coverage of Belfast and Northern Ireland.
  10. UKDefenceJournal.org.uk: An online publication run by volunteers that covers defence industry news in the United Kingdom, including military operations, equipment, and humanitarian work. The site also publishes fact-checks on military topics.

Thank you to our readers for helping us achieve this.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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79 COMMENTS

    • Airborne,

      Second your praise, but, huh…always thought this was a small, niche site for a few of those w/ a defence (w/ a c or a s, 😁) background. There is apparently a considerably larger audience lurking in the background…🤔
      May have to curb some of my saltier commentary and spell-check more rigorously…🤔😳😉

      • That is your response to Airborne!? Master of the scatologic riposte!? ‘Bleedin’ ‘ell!’ as Pater was wont to expostulate.

      • Mate it’s great to have shit loads of views and opinions, served, serving or never served! In fact some of the most knowledgeable have not served, but have a subject matter depth of detail which is astonishing (Daniele you know your the site ninja)! Or have served and have great knowledge and dits (Farouk) or are still grafting on those strange floating targets we call warships (GB) and of course the strange pale underwater breed of crazies who love to share beds (Deep32)!!!!! I have learned shed loads from these lads and many others!

        We do get the trolls and the easily led, but in the land of the internet, disinformation and nonsense should be expected (but not tolerated)! And, It’s always good to get a perspective from our brothers on the other side of the pond, and, your piss taking is improving! As for spell check, only Russians with a dodgy accent need to do that!!!!!!!! 😂

  4. Well done, however I’m slightly disturbed how the Liverpool Echo has scored so highly!

    It’s a rag, pretending to be a newspaper. I still haven’t worked out how the political editor of the Echo failed to publish any stories relating to the concerns had about the actions of some of Liverpool’s elected leadership / senior council workers / council contractors that have led to oversight being required.

  10. If anyone believes the Grauniad and the Indy are “trustworthy” then I have a gold brick for sale going cheap.

    • I knew there’d be one of these comments here.

      If you look at them for news, they most certainly are trustworthy. They’ve done some great reporting.

      The Opinions sections are full of a lot of dross and rubbish, and The Independent is ad infested beyond belief, but those were not being measured.

      And as you seem to be a great know-it-all, what are the wonderful publications that you suggest?

      • I had the opportunity of observing the “profession” of journalism at close quarters: I was not impressed. That was in the days of ‘hot metal’ – today most of the text in MSM publications, is generated by Automated Text Software: sub-editing is now almost non-existant, so errors get through. This sort of software is rule based, and has difficulty with anomalies, so the plural of the word ‘aircraft’ magically becomes ‘aircrafts.’ But to answer your question on which publication I find trustworthy – the works of P G Wodehouse are pretty reliable.

      • I used to be a Guardian and then Independent reader many years back, sadly both have moved away from strictly factual reporting allowing subjectivity to creep into their pure news reporting or simply reporting on chosen specific events that give naturally a certain support to their corporate position on the World while ignoring aspects of those stories or indeed stories altogether that don’t quite fit that corporate ‘philosophy’. Most commonly you will find this bias in military issues where often it is about as reliable and one sided in supplying the full facts as the Mail. Now some of this move away from objectivity I can have sympathy with as it gradually developed in the wake of once great Newspapers like the Times especially but also the Telegraph which whatever their leanings produced overwhelmingly objective coverage in their news output, becoming mouth pieces for the right wing but I had always respected the Guardian and Independent for refusing to play that game now sadly I tend to avoid them both which is sad because there still some excellent journalism there.

        As an aside a long term friend still works at the Guardian in a technical position and many years back in a disagreement with an Editor there was told that people like him (ie working class) should be working in factories, so don’t let’s get too tied up in the idea that all who work there are enthused with levelling up and social justice, it’s full of people from public schools who got their jobs because ‘daddy’ knows someone high up there. Hell even a former Managing Editor there fast tracked his daughter up the ladder into a senior or position. Oh and many years back when I worked on the book side for the Telegraph my boss was a South African who had to leave his home country because of his left wing views. Don’t know now but I do often wonder how much has changed in all those papers since.

        • The Guardian (I worked for them in a very small way but still …) has really gone downhill since the turn of the century. It once employed some sparkling talent, a few who had served.

          • Never been the same since they dropped ‘Manchester’ from its name and moved to London. Drove my father apolitic

        • In the days of hot-metal, journalists’ spelling mistakes were corrected by compositors: the Grauniad treated their printing staff so badly they did not do any correction – hence the Graun’s reputation for spelling mistakes.

        • Good points. I am disappointed with some of the errors in the Telegraph’s defence articles – eg. Harry was apparently stationed at RAF Wittering!

          Which papers do you think are the most unbiased and objective?

    • I’m not sure I would call them untrustworthy….that implies maleficence. It’s more lacking in rigorous processes, it’s the same with all the broad sheets. I tend to not stick with anyone for that reason and spread the love a bit.

    • Exactly. The Grauniad, in particular posts, the most untrustworthy rubbish.

      Nevertheless, national recognition is a great thing. Congratulations George. Well deserved.

  13. Well done George and all the other contributors. I don’t post as many comments but yes definitely a trusted source and all due to all of your hard work. Get’s referenced all over the place these days, from the drive and twitter, navy lookout, etc and occasionally the mainstream media.

  15. well done George and all your authors/scribes.
    Disappointed to find that my other trusted news source “The Sun”, isn’t up there with you.😊

  20. Congratulation, certainly been one of my top go to site for defence news for some time.

    However I don’t see how some of the the other got on the list sorry but a politically bias outlet by definition is not trustworthy as it will have an agenda to push.

  23. Well done George and the rest of the team- I know you guys work hard to provide up to date information, but crucially stuff that’s reliable.
    I follow a few defence sites and I know that I can confidently share articles from UKDJ elsewhere, knowing that I’m not going to look stupid later!

    • Indeed straight down the middle and well researched which is a rare find these days. You always know you can repeat stuff from here with the expectation it’s inevitably overwhelmingly accurate which is more than I can say about another US based site which reported about an British item in US support to Ukraine (should have raised alarm bells) I took as correct and repeated here only to find it was a schoolboy error simply down to two programs having the same name and they picked the wrong one. Never forgive myself, despite my doubts at the time presuming they wouldn’t make such a stupid error and making myself look foolish in the process. Certainly made me more conscious of how good things are here.

  26. Well done as the only technical or specialist name on the list. There must be a lot of work going on behind the scenes monitoring and then creating threads on such a wide range of topics.

  27. Well done to George and the whole team. This is very impressive achievement and is a huge credit to all at UKDJ.

    I actually feel quite proud to be associated in even a small way with the UKDJ and would like to thank you all for the opportunity to participate.

    Brilliant.

    Cheers CR

  35. George cannot be trusted…His posts stories on April 1st and pre Christmas Day about stuff that never or simply is not true…Fake New 😉

    Jokes aside great news and well done to George and the wider team! 🙂

  38. Congratulations to George and the editorial staff at UKDJ but also thanks to all the regular and occasional contributers who post comments here. I get as much incite and info from you people as I do the articles! Keeps me coming back every day.

  45. Well Deserved :-), on side note see Typhoons are on way to Red Flag 🙂 C-17 went to Nellis yesterday, 2 x Voyagers flew low and slow to Lajes yesterday just departed 111330zJan23 headed West 🙂

  46. My first post, I am one of those that “lurks in the background”, due to my own lack of knowledge 😊.
    However, I just couldnt resist posting my Gratz to all the team! This really is the go to site for all matters regarding UK military and often beyond. Trustworthy and thought provoking articles backed up by an excellent contributors who offer a wide breadth of opinion and insight. Keep up the good work!

  47. Well done UKDJ team. I thoroughly enjoy your content and am pleased you’re starting to get recognition for it. Please keep up the good work!

  48. Congratulation to George, Tom and all the UKDJ editorial and support team. A very well deserved accolade.
    Perhaps we commentators can also give ourselves a bit of a pat on the back too.

  51. More than well deserved UKDJ. You and blog contributors do an excellent job of debunking ‘Success’ flannel from the MoD Defence Humphreys. My one-stop shop for reliable information and reasoned discussion about perennially fouled up major Defence programmes. Greatly appreciated.

  53. Congrats for this recognition guys, but saddened that The Daily Mash has not also made it to the Top 10. I suspect that its ironical style would appeal to many readers here…

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