Communication

News agencies in Europe have joined forces to fight the growing threat posed by fake news. In a resolution adopted last week in Tirana, these commit to developing effective tools and rules to enable journalists and Internet users to fight misinformation as well as to promote reliable media and educate users to surf in the digital environment.

The news agencies,  including the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), that participated earlier this month at an international media conference in Tirana united around a resolution to fight аgainst fake news.

The low level of media literacy in Turkey has been making its people vulnerable to fake news, according to Şükrü Oktay Kılıç, a digital content strategist at verification platform teyit.org.

Tirana, Dec 3 /Agerpres/ - Today, fake news is no longer a phenomenon but a true communication strategy in the hands of a few people or groups which try to use the 'fourth power' for purposes often hostile, said the General Director of the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), Armela Krasniqi, on Sunday, at the opening of the international conference on the topic of "News Agencies

Freedom of the press is in danger in Moldova, Western diplomats, Moldovan journalists and experts said on Thursday at the Media Forum 2018, held in the capital, Chisinau.

Media freedom is already restricted, but the country's legislators are not interested in providing a better framework for an independent media to develop, speakers said.

Amid the rise of fake news and cyber-propaganda, the 2nd Greek Media, Information and News Literacy Week is aimed at promoting the critical role of media literacy education.

Sofia hosts an international conference on "Fake News of True Trolls" on 9th of November. The conference will present the European Commission's policy on combating online disinformation and the results of the anti-fake news measures taken so far. Among them is the recently developed Code of Good Practices for Combatting Disinformation on the Internet, reports BNT. 

''Fake news spreads faster and deeper'', said software expert Dr. Preslav Nakov.

''Disinformation, together with demographic knowledge is very dangerous because it can influence people's choices. Especially in social networks there must be a balance between fake news and freedom of speech'', he said.

According to Forbes, this is the world's best technology conference with more than 70,000 participants, the Serbian government said.

At this gathering, where directors and founders of technology companies, start-ups, representatives of governments, international institutions and media participate, Brnabic is representing Serbia in two panels.

Bulgaria's Specialised Prosecutor's Office and the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime disrupted a fake money printing factory, located in the basement of a hotel in Bulgaria's seaside resort of Sunny Beach. Four people were detained, including the hotel owner, who, according to the investigators, is also part of the criminal group.