It brings together a series of projects aimed at promoting public service journalism, combating misinformation and helping familiarize young people with the mission and work of the press.
Current projects
In recent years, combating misinformation and fake news has become a priority on Freedom House Romania’s agenda.
In April 2019, we launched the Lie Detector program with the help of funding provided by the Representation of the European Commission in Bucharest. We focused on monitoring the misinformation during the campaign of the 2019 European elections. In addition to the published articles, because we wanted a change of mentality and a responsibility of the actors that can influence the disinformation phenomenon, we also resorted to approaches based on requests for public rectification of false statements, on the use of the Right of Reply, but also on the notification of the competent institutions in sanctioning the deviations, where applicable. You can access the final report of this project here.
The Lie Detector was launched through the collective effort of several entities: Freedom House Romania, Geeks for Democracy, Stop Fake News in Romania, the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences and the University of Bucharest.
Brindusa Armanca
Raluca Radu
Catalin Tenita
Elena Calistru si Elena Dumitru
The project aimed at increasing the level of media literacy of citizens for the early detection and countering of misinformation, propaganda, false news, as well as external influence operations. The journalists produced articles, stories, interviews and live debates, and kept the public alert to the negative emotional effects of misinformation during the state of emergency and the state of alert in Romania.
In 2020-2021, we will run the COVID-19 FactsNotFake– The Emergency Newsroom. Infodemic Lie Detector project, which bridges vulnerable audiences, key disseminators of disinformation and opinion formers to combat the COVID-19 related disinformation through a journalistic approach. The project addresses the vulnerable public to the spread of fake news and combats misinformation about COVID-19 through a journalistic approach. A virtual newsroom that will bring together journalists from pressHUB, Trinitas, Ziarul Lumina and Basilica networks will work under the coordination of Sever Voinescu.