A Society Resistant to Disinformation

The panel discussion included Gints Amolins, Editor at Latvian Television; Tatjana Dordevic Simic, Journalist at Al Jazeera Balkans; Hayk Smbatyan, Deputy Director of CRRC Armenia Foundation; Luca Steinmann, Journalist and Geopolitical Analyst at Italian Review of Geopolitics; Ryszard Zajączkowski, Professor at Catholic University of Lublin; and Igors Klavins, Riga City Councilor. The moderator of the panel was Iga Karasinska, PR Specialist at the Ważne Sprawy portal.

At the beginning of the discussion, the moderator addressed the following questions to the speakers: How can we combat disinformation on a personal level? How do we raise awareness regarding disinformation, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine?

Gints Amolins stressed that the level of viewers’ trust in Latvian Television is high, but there are always voices questioning the information. The speaker noted that the phenomenon when people think there is something wrong in the information is quite natural. In the context of Russia’s armed attack on Ukraine, the TV station provides up-to-date information on a daily basis, which is verified on an ongoing basis.

Tatjana Dordevic Simic, in the context of the war in Ukraine and the disinformation surrounding the armed conflict, noted: “In the war, the truth has become the first victim.” In her view, the problem of disinformation also affects democratic countries, where it is the job of journalists to provide truthful information. In the pandemic, there was confusion almost every day, as there was a permanent change in the message. However, after the outbreak of the war, there was even more confusion in the transmission of information. A proposed strategy is to verify information sources and raise public awareness of misinformation.

In his speech, Hayk Smbatyan reflected on the issue of civil society’s role in combating disinformation, which is often not properly appreciated. As an example, he pointed to the CRRC think tank, which works in Armenia to combat fake news and has been conducting a research project to uncover the sources of disinformation. In his view, it is necessary to raise awareness about disinformation and promote critical thinking.

Luca Steinmann expressed his belief that the most important thing is to have as many sources of information as possible. He noted that as a journalist he spent seven months in the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine. In the current situation of information confusion, almost anyone can pretend to be a journalist. On the Russian side, he met many community activists who provided information for Russian propaganda. On a human level, critical thinking is crucial to combat disinformation.

Ryszard Zajączkowski pondered the question of how people of science should address the information confusion in the media, as in his opinion, scientists often respond to political demands in the current situation.

Igors Klavins noted that it is important, above all, to build media competence. As an example, he pointed to Latvia, where at the beginning of the war, about 70 per cent of the Latvian-speaking population supported Ukraine. Nowadays, it is about 82 per cent of the Latvian-speaking population. In the Russian-speaking society, on the other hand, only about 20 per cent supported Ukraine at the beginning of the war, compared to about 40 per cent today.