Central Europe is suffering the brunt of worldwide disinformation which is reaching unprecedented levels on topics ranging from health (including COVID-19) to politics. The cross-border dimension of disinformation and its great volatility, whether in terms of content or techniques used, call for coordinated, sophisticated and determined responses.
The Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO), as an independent non-partisan multidisciplinary hub, aims to identify, research and prioritise the most critical sources and causes of information disorders in Central Europe (mainly the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland). This international consortium was created to propose a set of short and longer-term actions, as well as recommendations to help civil society, public institutions and the private sector respond to the declining trust in key institutions and help society to resist the effect of increasing exposure to mis- and dis-information.
By interacting and coordinating with the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and other regional EDMO hubs in the EU, CEDMO will contribute to curbing threats posed by information disorders, including disenchantment with the democratic processes, and discord in civil society in Europe, and to building community and nation-wide resilience while protecting information ecosystems.
CEDMO is a hub of highly experienced fact-checkers, academic researchers from social sciences and technology, media professionals, and media literacy experts who work together with the aim to better understand and analyse online disinformation, in collaboration with media organisations, community leaders, private companies and public authorities.
CEDMO’s mission is to:
- Decrease the worst harm of disinformation, such as threats to public health, social cohesion, economic development, hate speech, and extremism that endanger individual and public wellbeing and democratic processes by increasing and harmonizing fact-checking activities also with the help of technology and artificial intelligence in particular.
- Strengthen Transparency and Understanding by enhancing media and digital literacy, access to trustworthy information and hampering the reach of mis-/ dis-information, and performing deeper research into the information and media ecosystem, its interdependencies and impact on societies and individuals.
- Building Trust by analysing the challenges the region, states and communities face in building and rebuilding trust, and the role that access to reliable facts and content plays in those conversations.
This should be reached via the following activities:
- Develop the technical infrastructure for immediate disinformation responses and daily fact checking.
- Innovate methods and digital tools to improve debunking and research disinformation flow.
- Research the impact of disinformation on society and specific groups.
- Produce interdisciplinary analytical reports on the state of disinformation.
- Design and implement media literacy campaigns using innovative interactive tools.
- Evaluate the impact of planned interventions.
- Strengthen the information ecosystem.
- Network and cooperate internationally to counteract disinformation within the EU.
CEDMO pursues the highest standards in:
- Ethical innovation and responsible use of technology
- Cross-sector collaboration
- Stakeholders’ engagement
- Transparency and accountability
- Data management, cybersecurity and compliance
- Its Anti-corruption and Safeguarding Policy
- Sustainability focus aligned with Agenda 2030 and SDGs