Public event #BeTheChange: The influence of fakes and propaganda on national minorities in the issue of European integration of the Republic of Moldova
The Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation Republic of Moldova and in media partnership with Privesc.Eu, held on Thursday, September 11, 2022, the third event this year under the initiative “#BeTheChange: change begins with you!”, dedicated to the topic “The influence of fakes and propaganda on national minorities in the issue of European integration of the Republic of Moldova”
The guests of the event, moderated by Mihai Peicov, an intern of the #BetheChange program within the framework of PRE, told about how independent and dependent media work in the Republic of Moldova, what difficulties independent journalists face in the regions with predominantly minority populations, highlighted the features of combating fakes and propaganda in ethnic communities, and also assessed the laws on the fight against disinformation, operating in the Republic of Moldova.
Next, we propose some of the main interventions of the speakers.
Anghelina Gaidarji, Journalist of the news portal TUК.MD (Taraclia, Republic of Moldova): “Representatives of national minorities in the Republic of Moldova are indeed more susceptible to the influence of propaganda and fake information. But why? National minorities are used to receiving information in a language they understand and for all minority groups, it is Russian. Since there is no or very little content in minority languages produced in Moldova, the Russian language remains the only one understandable for them on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. More often, national minorities watch Russian TV channels, which form the vision and opinion of national minorities. But here it is also worth noting the influence of the local independent press, which most often speculates on this or that information, thereby supporting fake information coming from Russian TV channels.”
Ludmila Topal, Journalist and editor-in-chief of the news portal/TV channel BAS.TV (Bessarabeasca, Republic of Moldova): “National minorities are most dependent on fakes on the following topics: European integration, the LGBT+ community, the natural gas problem, the current political forces in the country, the war in Ukraine. These have always been the most sensitive topics in regions with predominantly minority populations, and the war in Ukraine has strengthened this problem even more. We can definitely say that these topics are more palpable for minorities, since they know little about it and have little interest in it. They don’t analyze, they don’t study. But I think it’s worth noting that the situation has been changing in recent years. Our young people visit Europe and tell us what is there, showing a real picture. New alternative media in Russian are emerging. This gives its results.”
For more details, you can watch the video recording of the event on privesc.eu here.
The event was organized by trainees participating in the program # Trainiuipre2022 within the IPRE Project ” Change begins with you! – #BetheChange: young people for the Europeanization of the Republic of Moldova”, implemented in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in the Republic of Moldova and with the financial support of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
