Project Name: EaP and V4 Community Countering Disinformation
The project is supported by the International Visegrad Fund.
The primary goal of the project is to develop innovative approaches to fight Russian propaganda and other hybrid threats in the region. The particular emphasis is put on improving media literacy and critical thinking skills in EaP and V4 communities.
The project intends to develop the platform among EaP and V4 countries for discussions, studies, information, and practice-sharing. This cooperation will result in enhanced critical approach and better analysis of media messages in EaP&V4 countries. Moreover, the project will develop the common strategies for countering propaganda.
The project contains two main components, first is the Forum – “EaP and V4 Countries Countering Disinformation” which will be helld on February 13-14, 2019 that involved experts in international and regional politics, representatives of non-governmental organizations working on Russian propaganda issues, media literacy and communications from EaP and V4 countries. The aim of the event is to engage the wider audience in the discussion on propaganda, disinformation, fake news, media Literacy, critical thinking and social media, Russian soft power, EU-NATO communication strategies, etc.
Another component is Publishing Blogs in order to increase the public awareness on the disinformation and propaganda issues in EaP and V4 regions, increase the media literacy and critical thinking for countering Russian propaganda and soft power tools.
For successful implementation of the project and achieving tangible outputs throughout we involved 11 organizations from all countries from the EaP (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine) and V4 (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic) regions.
The project is implemented in collaboration of Europe-Georgia Institute and Civil Development and Research Institute.
Project Partners:
EaP:
- Civil Development and Research Institute (CDRI) – Civil Development and Research Institute (CDRI) was founded on January 4, 2018, as an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization. CDRI’s objectives include strengthening democratic processes in Georgia, involving the youth and different vulnerable groups in civic initiatives, establishing and promoting active citizenship practices countrywide, etc.
- Media Education Center – Media Education Center promotes the usage of internet, digitalization to enhance democratic communication; develops and implements projects to transform teaching and learning through the integration of ICTs.
- Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights – The organization carries out media literacy activities in Azerbaijan among the young people in order to raise the awareness about Russian soft power.
- NGO “Detector Media” – Detector Media (DM) is a Ukrainian media platform and think-tank which promotes the improvement of the quality of the media content in Ukraine, increases citizen’s media literacy for countering the propaganda. DM conducts the monitoring of Ukrainian media on a permanent basis and applies the results in the follow-up work with journalists and editors to increase their professional capacity.
- Institute for Public Policy – IPP creates frameworks for stakeholder discussions to raise citizens’ awareness about public decision-making processes and democratic development of the civil society in Moldova.
- Center for Civil Society Studies of Belarus – Center for Civil Society Studies of Belarus has years of experience in research of civil society development through Belarus’s history and society. Center for Civil Society Studies of Belarus is actively involved in fighting Russian propaganda and misinformation and raising media-literacy in the society.
V4 partners:
- European Values Think-Tank – Established in 2005 European Values Think-Tank is a Prague-based think-tank focusing on promoting liberal democracy. The organization runs “Kremlin Watch Program”, which aims to unravel and confront with the instruments of Russian hybrid war, which is directed against liberal-democratic systems. The organization has been consulting the Czech government within the framework of the National Security Audit on chapter “Influence of Foreign Powers”
- Global.Lab – Global.Lab is an independent think-and-do-tank focused on international affairs, working to increase common knowledge of global political, social and economic issues.
- Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) – Institute for Public Affairs provides a platform for experts in various areas of public policy and creates conditions for their effective and fruitful cooperation. IVO contributes to the expert dialogue, initiates discussion on important issues including the propaganda influence in Slovakia.
- Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) – CENAA is playing an active role in the strategic discussions in Slovakia and the Euro-Atlantic area. The CENAA staff consists of researchers focused on external security issues (NATO, terrorism, European Security and Defense Policy, etc.) and new security threats in terms of internal security, such as extremism, radicalization, intolerance, hatred, anti-discrimination work with reference to Hungarian minorities and social research.
- Political Capital – Political Capital is a policy research, analysis and consulting think-tank institute committed to the basic values of parliamentary democracy, human rights, and a market economy. Political Capital focuses on the issues such as democratic institutions and related challenges, political risks, radicalism and extremism, electoral systems, international migration and policies, international relations (especially between Europe and Russia), the diplomatic ties of the Visegrad countries, and relations between the EU member states.