International Conference “Disinformation in Southeast Europe" - Media Programme Southeast Europe
Disinformation is a widespread problem – also in South Eastern Europe. Journalists are confronted with fake news and misinforming propaganda every day. To shed further light on this issue, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Media Programme for South East Europe conducted a study in which all ten countries in the Balkans were analyzed. The resulting book "Blurring the Truth – Disinformation in Southeast Europe" was presented during the conference and served as the basis for the event.
The conference was opened by the three organizers. Hendrik Sittig, Head of the KAS Media Programme South East Europe, Irina Nedeva, President of the Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria, and Yordan Bozhilov, Director of the Sofia Security Forum, gave speeches on disinformation and the influence of Russia particular in the Balkan. They were followed by a thought-provoking speech by the well-known Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. He spoke about fake news and that it is not a by-product of the internet, but was already used during the Second World War. He also discussed the influence of Russia in the Southeast European countries. Gospodinov explained the difference between the real world and fiction. “Literature is fiction, but unlike reality, it does not lie. It is its own world and does not try to make something else out of it”.
Gospodinov was followed by the first panel. The invited guests were Ruslan Stefanov, Director of the Economic Program at the Center of the study of Democracy Sofia, Stafan Janic, Editor-In-Chief FakeNews Tragac from Belgrade, Elena Marzac, Executive Director of the Center for Information and Documentation of NATO in Moldova and Co-Founder of the Platform for Civil Society for Security and Defence, and Ciprian Cucu, Co-Founder of Forum Apulum from Bucharest. They spoke about the current situation of disinformation in Southeast Europe, who are the main actors, what narratives are served and for whom disinformation benefits. The panel was moderated by Christopher Nehring, KAS guest lecturer on disinformation at Sofia University. He had also coordinated the KAS study.
The second panel discussed the impact of disinformation and fake news on the daily lives of journalists and the media. The guest speakers were Alina Bargaoanu, member of the Advisory Board of the European Digital Media Observatory from Bucharest, Alexei Lazarov, Editor-In-Chief at Capital Weekly from Sofia, Patrick Gensing, journalist and former head of the "ARD Fact Finder", Katerina Sinadinovska, President of the Council for Media Ethics from Skopje, and Tatjana Lazarevic, Editor-In-Chief at the information portal KoSSev from Mitrovica. The moderator of this panel was Claudia Nothelle, Professor of Journalism at the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal.
It was followed by a presentation by Christopher Nehring entitled "The Future of Disinformation – Metaverse, Deepfakes & ChatGPT". He explained what the Metaverse is and why it is a good environment for disinformation. He also described what a problem deepfakes are and how ChatGPT works.
The third panel discussed countermeasures against disinformation, what journalists can do to make society trust them more, and what measures have already been taken. The guest speakers were Tomass Pildegovics, NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence from Riga, Valerie Scholz, co-founder of Facts for Friends from Hamburg, Natalie Pang from the National University of Singapore, who joined via Zoom, and Bozhidar Bozhanov, former Bulgarian Minister of Electronic Governance from Sofia.
