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.
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.
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).
The Centre for European Perspective is holding 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 will build upon the experiences and knowledge from previous conferences, enhance inter- and intra-country networking and regional cooperation while at the same time offer the participants insights into newest developments and good practices on countering mis- and disinformation, offer new tools to investigate them and propose concrete results/steps going forward on countering disinformation.
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).
The Centre for European Perspective is holding the second capacity-building training on countering disinformation in Portorož (SLO), bringing together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries in the Western Balkans.
At this weeks training, the representatives from the media and NGO’s, had the chance to discuss disinformation issues with the governmental representatives. All sides presented good practices and made next steps in strengthening regional cooperation.
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).
From 5 to 7 October 2021 in Portorož in Slovenia, Centre for European Perspective will organise the second capacity-building training on countering disinformation.
We will bring together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries in the Western Balkans. With the input from experts, role plays and simulations, the training is aimed at enhancement of resilience and encourages further cooperation of the six countries in the Western Balkans against disinformation.
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).
On Friday, 11 June 2021, the capacity building workshop on disinformation concluded. The event brought together representatives of media and civil society from the Western Balkans. The representatives of government from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro were present, which enabled all three stakeholders to exchange experiences and learn from each other.
The participants received input from international and local experts, which was followed by a discussion. The topics were centred around how different actors in Europe counter disinformation and what is the role of the government, civil society and media in this. The event enabled media and civil society organizations to openly share their common challenges and engage in discussion on how to address them. It provided an environment in which stakeholders from all three sectors could engage in an open and honest exchange of views. In the second half, the participants actively engaged in scenario role-play to address crises situations and disinformation. This will be followed by other events and activities which encourage stakeholders to tackle the challenge of foreign disinformation in the Western Balkans.
The event was organized in the framework of the project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in the Western Balkans” financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and Slovenian Aid fund from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For more about the project activities – click here.
