26. 3. 2023 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR, Strategic Communication
The rapid development of digital communication technology impacts our lives in myriad ways. It does not seem so far ago when we were faxing long press releases to journalists to where we are now when 280 characters can do the same job, occasionally with an even more significant impact. Digital communications and social media are transforming pillars of a democratic society. It is more important than ever for governments to understand their responsibilities and roles in ensuring that their institutions are prepared to adapt and adopt new practices to cement their place within this new digital information economy.
That is why representatives from 19 countries convened to ensure that they, together, are ready to rise to any and all resulting challenges. The participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine joined us in Portorož for 4-day long training from March 21st to 24th within the scope of European Digital Diplomacy Exchange project.
The training titled »Turning Practice into Strategy, Structures, and Systems” focused on retrieving already obtained digital communication skills, as well as polishing and advancing them. Various international speakers coming from the US State Department, the Slovenian government, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NATO spoke to us about digital rhetoric, marketing public affairs, nation branding, the importance of the audience approach as well as social listening and performance analysis. Crisis communication was also addressed, as well as how to counter disinformation and design digital strategies and ways of cooperation within governments, ministries and embassies.
There were quite a few practical exercises during the training, through which participants put their theoretical knowledge into practice – by preparing a digital strategy that will be of help when establishing a national digital strategy. A very important part of the training was time to connect and network, and the participants made the most of it.
The project is a result of cooperation between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, and the Centre for European Perspective.
The project is partially financed by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the scope of the program activities of international development cooperation.
13. 3. 2023 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR, Strategic Communication
More than ever, the unstable and uncertain times call for effective and trustworthy communication from governments and institutions. They are under enormous pressure to introduce and communicate policy initiatives under extraordinary circumstances while simultaneously competing with the flooding of misinformation and disinformation. Digital capabilities and strategic thinking have undoubtedly become the core of governments’ communications and public affairs operations.
Once again, European Digital Diplomacy Exchange will gather government communicators for a 4-day training, where they will be polishing their digital communication competencies. Participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine will join us in Portorož from 21 to 24 March.
The theme of this training will be “Turning Practice into Strategy, Structures, and Systems.” With the focus on returning participants, we will be shifting our attention to how participants can translate the skills they have developed during previous workshops into policies, protocols, and procedures that will foster institutional systems that better enable digital strategic communications practices. Participants will learn from experts in this field and participate in practical exercises that will provide tangible, workable solutions to their home ministries.
The project is a result of cooperation between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, and the Centre for European Perspective.
The project is partially financed by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the scope of the program activities of international development cooperation.
Klikni tukaj za več informacij o projektnih aktivnosti v slovenščini.
25. 11. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries
Klikni tukaj za več o projektu v slovenščini. 
Once again, government communicators, journalists and members of civil society from Western Balkan countries gathered to address the challenge of disinformation.
The disruptive nature of disinformation requires a whole-of-society approach and cooperation among different sectors. All too often, members of government, journalists and civil society members work separately from each other, yet striving towards the same goal, which is to protect democratic institutions and diminish the space for disinformation.
It is for this reason that CEP initiated a project ‘Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in six Western Balkan countries’. In the scope of the project, a conference took place in Bled from 22 to 24 November 2022.
The conference was attended by 37 participants from Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). All of the participants deal with the challenge of disinformation daily – whether as government communicators, fact-checkers or journalists.
The conference was divided into two parts – in the first part, several discussions with the aim of understanding disinformation, why it is done and how it impacts our societies were held. At the second part of the conference, participants started working on their ‘Country disinformation reports’, where they applied the insights gained from the first part. This is not the last conference in the scope of the project. In the next editions, the participants will continue writing reports on disinformation and expand them with sections on tools and tactics to counter and prevent disinformation, as well as sections on coordination necessary among different sectors.
The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia through development cooperation funds.
More about the activities in the gallery below.
19. 11. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries
Klikni tukaj za več o projektu v slovenščini.
Once again, stakeholders involved in the co-creation of the information environment from 6 Western Balkans countries are meeting at the Conference on countering disinformation which will take place next week, from the 22nd to the 24th of November 2022, in Bled, Slovenia. It will bring together government, civil society, and media from 6 Western Balkans countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia).
The conference is organised in the scope of the project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in 6 Western Balkans countries”, which was launched in 2020. This conference is going to focus on identifying and understanding disinformation and its impact.
The speakers from across Europe and wider will join us and share their expertise with participants about the most recent developments in the field.
The distinguishing feature of the project is the whole-of-society approach, connecting governments, civil society, and media in each country and across all 6 Western Balkans countries. This collaboration is of great importance when addressing such a complex issue as disinformation and enhancing resilience to external influences. Other core activities of the projects are providing capacity building to governments in Western Balkans and helping to create a national mechanism for countering disinformation in each country, specialized trainings for stakeholders, and creation of a regional platform to exchange information.
The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia through development cooperation funds.
4. 7. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries
Mengeš, 4 July 2022 – Democracy report 2021* by V-Dem Institute shows that an overall decline in democratic standards is noticeable around the globe. A wave of autocratization has reached Europe as well. A big problem in countries with a decline in democratic standards is the polarization of societies. Disinformation contributes greatly to this polarization with the use of misinformation to shape domestic and international opinion.
We are happy to introduce the new CEP publication titled ‘Information war and fight for truth’, which is the result of cooperation between various stakeholders in the Western Balkans in the framework of the project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in 6 Western Balkans countries”.
This publication seeks to provide insight into the situation in the Western Balkans and the harmful effects of foreign perpetrated disinformation. The use of disinformation tactics is not a new phenomenon, especially with the spread of modern technology that helps move information faster. The amount of misinformation in the past years has increased enormously and it threatens societies in a way that inflicts divisions, undermines democratic values and stalls EU integration processes. Counternarratives about climate change allow countries and corporations to ignore the effect of their actions on the planet Earth. Misinformation on vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic has even cost lives. Moreover, we have witnessed the two-tracked war in Ukraine: the one on the ground and the information war.
As the authors of this publication show foreign, mostly Russian disinformation is strongly present in the Western Balkans with the aim to keep the region politically unstable and to slow its path to the EU. Experts from the Western Balkans write about the interconnectedness of Russian and local media, and disinformation about the war in Ukraine in the region.
Read and download the publication HERE.
The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia through the program activities of international development cooperation.
18. 3. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries
The Centre for European Perspective held the third capacity-building training/conference on countering disinformation in Ljubljana (SI) from 15 to 17 March 2022, bringing together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries of the Western Balkans.
The conference offered new insights into how humans store and process information, and also presented case studies on disinformation regarding Ukraine and the pandemic in Canada. The participants were acquainted with a best practices approach in treating and countering disinformation (cases of Taiwan and Sweden) and had a training on tools for investigating online misinformation and disinformation. An interactive session was devoted to putting acquired knowledge to practice and came up with a set of concrete solutions/proposals going forward – most importantly for participants’ respective countries, but for the project and future conferences as well.
Project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in the Western Balkans” is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and Slovenian Development Aid fund (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia).
