The initiative aims to meet the need of building capacity of journalists from local media and information sites to recognize and deal with disinformation and fake news regarding the values, goals and policies of the European Union. It is expected that the initiative will cover 42 journalists from local media, selected from regional centres and municipalities with a population of over 25,000 inhabitants. In the short term, its implementation will increase their knowledge, skills and sensitivity to misinformation and fake news, and respectively increase the quality of content in their media. In the long-term – through the publication of the standardized texts and through the commitment of journalists to the content of their work, an increase in awareness of misinformation and fake news will also be achieved among the general public, and respectively to an improvement of their knowledge of EU values.
The initiative “Counter-propaganda close to you” – improving the capacity of local media and local news sites to tackle disinformation and fake news” is implemented within the framework of the “ProEUvaluesBG” project and is funded by the European Union and the “Open Society Institute – Sofia” foundation ” (OSI – Sofia).