A Discussion Platform to combat disinformation in a national, regional and international context was launched on Monday, October 16, at the initiative of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) "Viitorul". This is represented by journalists, students, non-governmental organizations that implement projects in the field of disinformation, but also by teachers who teach media education in schools. In the first session, a collection of five articles was presented, having been written by five participants of the May-June 2023 training program on critical thinking, media literacy, analysis, resistance to disinformation, and unbiased coverage of public interest information. The articles analyzed a series of current news topics , distorted or presented in an intentionally erroneous way, for the purpose of misinforming the Moldovan public opinion.
The Discussion Platform was launched within the "Supporting Critical Thinking and Resistance to Disinformation in Moldova" project, implemented by IDIS "Viitorul", in the period January 2023 - October 2024, with the financial support of the Embassy of Finland in Bucharest. The Discussion Platform aims to facilitate cooperation between the public, journalists, and the regulatory agency in the context of the fight against disinformation in a national, regional, and international context. Also, this aims to ensure a participative environment for debate, with workshops where topics related to critical thinking, media literacy, analysis, resistance to disinformation, and reflecting information of public interest are discussed in an unbiased manner.
Carolina Ungureanu, project coordinator, and deputy director of IDIS "Viitorul": ”By launching this Discussion Platform, we want to draw attention to the numerous information that is currently being disseminated through many information channels and that needs to be assimilated carefully. They require critical thinking and analysis from various sources to avoid manipulation. Our object in launching this Platform is to investigate the tools, ways, and sources of disinformation, but also to provide constructive recommendations for citizens. Today we need to get much more involved in this regard. The speed with which information circulates is different than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. These processes influence the behavior of citizens and shape the mentality and thinking of man. We want to have a democratic society, where there is critical thinking, the possibility to reflect and understand which information is truthful and correct, with the possibility to express the opinions of all parties involved.”
Maria Nistor analyzed how some media sources manipulated, in political interest, narratives on the historical event of June 28, 1940, when, from a historical point of view, the day of the Soviet occupation, and how the pro-Russian parties from Chisinau celebrated it as "the liberation of Moldova from the Romanian occupation". Some information sources, according to Maria Nistor, published falsehoods on this occasion, supporting the ideological visions of pro-Russian political parties. "We know what happened on June 28, 1940. When I saw the report on Primul în Moldova I researched to find out why we have such material. I found out that the TV station has a suspended broadcast license, it was fined by the Broadcasting Council several times because it misinforms. It was previously affiliated with a political party with Russian views, and today, another pro-Russian party manages it. At the same time, the people who organized the protest action are members of another political party, which militates for the eastern direction of external orientation of the Republic of Moldova.”
Mihai Avasiloaie researched how the media manipulates the presentation of opinion surveys. Thus, he found out that ignoring the context, presenting opinions as facts, and blurring are some of the methods used in a news story kp.md related to a IPRE and CBS-AXA survey from July 2023. "Opinion surveys are often an opportunity for some media sources to manipulate. I found out, during the realization of this analysis, that the kp.md portal is a media source financed from Moscow and follows the narratives of Russian propaganda. The website (but also the newspaper Комсомольская правда) has intensively promoted the interests of the PSRM in recent years, being owned by the company of the former president of the Socialists from Parliament, Corneliu Furculita. An investigation by Ziarul de Gardă, from 2021, said that this company also owned the newspaper „Аргументы и Факты в Молдове” (aif.md.)”
Mihail Nesteriuc spoke about Moldovan-Romanian relations through the lens of Putinist disinformation. In his opinion, modern Russia inherited the foreign policy strategy from the USSR, which, instead of consolidating the people in their national states and attracting them to cooperate with the Russian people based on a project or an idea of mutual benefit, chose to divide nationalities into artificial blocs and control them. ”The situation in the Republic of Moldova, and the neighboring regions, remains complex and dynamic. Opinions on armaments, foreign policy, and geopolitical interests need careful consideration and discussion with all stakeholders. Policymakers and NGOs involved in information security and education must prepare citizens for disinformation and potential challenges of enemy propaganda.”
Cătălin Murzac analyzed how some media manipulated the subject of the Republic of Moldova's withdrawal from the Agreement on the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). ”The monitoring carried out shows that there are trends of informational manipulation in the content of the reports made by the television station OrizonTV. Rules of the Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova were violated, such as: promoting audiovisual pluralism; correct, objective, complex, and impartial information; and promoting pluralistic public debates. To present the current authorities of the Republic of Moldova in a bad light, several types of manipulation were used. The statements of the authorities, although present in the reports, are taken out of context, and the contrary narrative is presented from dominant positions, through its quantity and diversity. The lack of impartial expertise and the omission of information, as well as its extraction from context, clearly mark the contours of manipulation.”
The attention of Pavel Vintilă was the manipulation of history in political interest, by political parties, through mass media channels. He analyzed how some media institutions reflected the date of August 24, 1944, when from a historical point of view the Iasi-Chisinau operation is marked. ”These historical, tragic events of national importance are used by the agents of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova for political purposes, stepping over the historical truth, slandering the memory of thousands of Bessarabians, who became victims of the Soviet administration of occupation and, on the other hand, it wants to glorify, to praise the Soviet regime that was established in Bessarabia after the military operations of the summer of 1944. At the same time, all falsehoods and denigrations are directed at the government democratically elected by the citizens, in order to weaken its support, so that the hybrid war plans organized by Russia against the Republic of Moldova and the current pro-European leadership can be realized.”
Ludmila Barbă, journalist Moldova 1: ” I didn't know that today's young people have the desire to delve deeper and study the world of fakes, which dominate our standard of living, but also our thinking. I welcome the fact that these young people learned to distinguish between correct and false information. They must, through other activities, take this assimilated knowledge further. This is very important because propaganda and manipulation act on people's emotions.”
Irina Bejan, Regional Center for Community Development from Cahul: „Today, when we are bombarded with false information, we are increasingly being fed untruths, we are directly involved in a hybrid war and it is necessary to join forces to counter and prevent disinformation. A common platform between specialists, representatives of civil society, and the authorities, would be one solution that can contribute to this fight against propaganda and the influence of media aggressors. The more topics will be discussed within the Platform, the easier we will discern the lie from the truth and send the message that we are not afraid, we are ready to fight the attacks from outside in the information field.”
Until now, within the project "Supporting Critical Thinking and Resistance to Disinformation in Moldova", a mapping of media institutions and civil society organizations active in the media space was carried out. A meeting was organized with the members of the Audiovisual Council to announce the objectives of the project and estimate the contribution that civil society can have in this field. 20 sessions of the training program on critical thinking, media literacy, analysis, resistance to disinformation, and unbiased coverage of public interest information were conducted, where 31-35 people participated. Two infographics were also produced based on information from the Program. A study will be presented on how the most influential Moldovan media institutions reflect the internal and external problems that affect society, from the perspective of disinformation, the presentation of fake news, but also a Guide - signaling tool, on the principle of the "red flags", which will be a guide for journalists and media users, and will focus on ways to identify false information.
--------------------
The project "Supporting Critical Thinking and Resistance to Disinformation in Moldova," implemented by the IDIS "Viitorul" from January 2023 to October 2024, is financially supported by the Embassy of Finland in Bucharest.
IDIS "Viitorul" is an independent think tank established in 1993 that combines social, political and economic research with strong advocacy components. The institution conducts applied monitoring research on several areas: economics, social policy, EU policies, regional development, but also security and foreign policy risk.
Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/IDISViitorul ;
Subscribe to our Telegram channel - https://t.me/idis93 ;
Watch us on our Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@idisviitorul8539 .
