The roundtable discussion will take place on 28 August, titled ‘The Line Is(n’t) Thin: Fact v. Opinion, Regulation v. Censorship’.
Western Balkan participants will be joined by Mr Jakub Kalensky of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and Mr Burak Ünveren, a journalist at Deutsche Welle.
Through an open and dynamic exchange, participants and guests will have an opportunity to touch upon questions that do not always have straightforward answers in the fight against disinformation, such as: how to ensure that democratic standards and freedom of speech are upheld while still curbing the spread of disinformation? Are the current projects and initiatives focused on countering disinformation largely on the right track – or do we need to adjust our course? How has the experience with Covid-19 and the Russian aggression against Ukraine changed journalism – have we learned anything?
Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation project continues to support efforts of Western Balkan governments, media and civil society to establish national mechanisms for countering disinformation. The roundtable event will further be an opportunity to discuss the way forward in these efforts, and in particular, the role of media and civil society.
After the roundtable discussion, Western Balkan participants are invited to join and enjoy the rich program of the Bled Strategic Forum on 28 and 29 August.
The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia through development cooperation funds.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION ABOUT The advancement of digital technology drastically effected communication practices. It changed how and who produces, distributes and consumes information. Governments and other actors working in the public’s interest communicate to...
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.
The first online closed-door session for BiH governmental officials ‘Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in the Western Balkans’ successfully concludes
On April 14, CEP has organised the first workshop designed for governmental officials coming from BiH aimed at supporting the governments of WB6 in building their national system of countering foreign perpetrated disinformation.
The training was opened by CEP Project Manager, Ana Ješe Perković and CEP Executive Director Katja Geršak who presented the aim of the project and the workshop. The training activities of the first day continued with two expert presentations. Mr Roman Osadchuk, an expert from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab gave the participants an overview of what is disinformation, how to counter it and what are the most useful online tools we can use to deal with disinformation. The second expert, Mr Darko Brkan from a Bosnian fact-checking NGO Zašto ne presented the current disinformation trends in the Western Balkans. The first day concluded with a discussion about the main problems regarding foreign perpetrated disinformation in BiH and what should be done to tackle it.
The second part of the training was held on May 17th, with a guest lecturer from the Lithuanian MFA – an expert working on strategic communications presented us the Lithuanian case study on how to effectively counter disinformation. The participants learned about how Lithuania formed a coordination group among 4 different ministries and what were the biggest obstacles in doing that. Governmental officials from BiH discussed what needs to be done to establish a similar system in their country.
What they learned from the Lithuanian case study is that apart from reacting and debunking disinformation, it is important as well to tell the wider story behind the disinformation and to spread awareness about the fake narratives to the wider public.
Apart from bigger cooperation from the governmental institutions, we also need to collaborate with local civil society and media. A good example could be public consultations among those three stakeholders or an organisation of a media literacy festival.
The series of workshops is a part of the project supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Slovenia’s Development Cooperation Programme.
First online closed-door session for BiH governmental officials ‘Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in the Western Balkans’ held on April 14
On April 14, CEP has organised the first workshop designed for governmental officials coming from BiH aimed at supporting the governments of WB6 in building their national system of countering foreign perpetrated disinformation.
The training was opened by CEP Project Manager, Ana Ješe Perković and CEP Executive Director Katja Geršak who presented the aim of the project and the workshop. The training activities of the first day continued with two expert presentations. Mr Roman Osadchuk, an expert from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab gave the participants an overview of what is disinformation, how to counter it and what are the most useful online tools we can use to deal with disinformation. The second expert, Mr Darko Brkan from a Bosnian fact-checking NGO Zašto ne presented the current disinformation trends in the Western Balkans. The first day concluded with a discussion about the main problems regarding foreign perpetrated disinformation in BiH and what should be done to tackle it.
The second part of the two-day workshop will be held in May.
The series of workshops is a part of the project supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Slovenia’s Development Cooperation Programme.
