Following the aftermath of COVID-19 and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, disinformation, already considered endemic throughout the Western Balkans, experienced a sharp increase. While originating from various systemic issues within these countries, specific key common factors have been identified such as polarisation, skepticism towards EU integration, lack of pluralism, and state-owned media.
While foreign actors feature prominently, a significant share of disinformation in the Western Balkans is produced and disseminated by domestic and regional actors to undermine or delegitimise their political opponents. This fuels greater polarisation, hinders cross-communal cooperation, and undermines people’s confidence in democratic processes.
The ‘Combatting Disinformation in the Western Balkans (CDWB)’ is a project focusing, precisely, on tackling foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro and Serbia. The project seeks to mitigate disinformation influence in the region by:
- Actively involving citizens in raising awareness campaigns, media education, assemblies deliberation, consensus-making and decision-making.
- Analysing disinformation patterns, the media ecosystem in which mass media operate, as well as the respect of ethical professional standards by media to inform advocacy and dialogue sessions and subsequently implement activities tailored to disinformation tactics and strategies.
- Contributing to the improvement of regulation both at national and regional level, without hampering freedom of expression.,
- Fostering capacity-building in fact-checking skills, increasing accountability and reliability of potential print media, broadcast media and internet media.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
Citizens’ Assemblies
As part of the project, four Citizens’ Assemblies were organised in the four target countries of the project, bringing together participants from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Unlike traditional top-down approaches, these assemblies are designed to foster reflection and provide an inclusive, collaborative, and consensus-building democratic platform. They enable citizens to engage in structured, informed discussions to explore the roots and impacts of complex societal issues such as disinformation and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI).
Participants worked in small groups to draft recommendations. These were then presented in a plenary session with decision-makers such as politicians, experts, and other stakeholders, who asked questions and suggested improvements. Participants revised the proposals based on this feedback to make them more feasible. In a final plenary session, the updated recommendations were put to a vote, and the approved ones became the assembly’s official outcomes.
Recommendations from the four Citizens’ Assemblies:
- Education, media literacy, public awareness: Enhance the information available to older adults, especially in smaller communities, through local news, specialized programs, pensioner associations, newspaper delivery, organisations in the local community, and media literacy campaigns.
- Media regulation and system reforms: Ensure that members of regulatory bodies and other institutions responsible for media oversight suspend their membership or affiliation with political parties while serving in such bodies. This aims to promote their depoliticisation, including prohibiting the issuance of political statements.
- Legal measures and cooperation: Promote and provide more space to fact-checking organisations. Ensure their presence at the public service broadcaster.
- Education, media literacy, public awareness: Intensify activities to raise citizens’ awareness in cooperation with institutions and the non-governmental sector to prevent the spread of misinformation.
- Media regulation and system reforms: Register internet portals for the purpose of publishing the ownership structure and closure/extinction of those who refuse to register.
- Legal measures and cooperation: Establish and operate cybercrime units at higher levels of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (entity and cantonal), and to provide the necessary training and technical support at the local level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
- Education, media literacy, public awareness: Integrate media education with the digitisation process of the education system, serving as a crucial prerequisite for the successful implementation of media education and critical thinking.
- Media regulation and system reforms: Enhance institutional capacities by supporting regulatory and self-regulatory financial sustainability, particularly for the Independent Media Commission and the Kosovo Press Council.
- Legal measures and cooperation: Engage in cross-border cooperation with other countries in the region and involve social media platforms by harmonising efforts and initiatives to address foreign malign influence and anti-democratic influence in the region.
- Education, media literacy, public awareness: Institutionalise additional media literacy training for teachers and parents to create a supportive environment for the development of these skills in young generations.
- Media regulation and system reforms: Establish a specialised body that would deal with the identification, monitoring, and suppression of disinformation and foreign influence. This body would have the mandate to analyse and evaluate media content to identify disinformation and take appropriate measures to reduce its harmful impact on society.
- Legal measures and cooperation: Establish a comprehensive legal framework that would cover the spread of disinformation through the media. This law would aim to punish media sources who intentionally spread false information or misinformation, as well as individuals who contribute to the spread of hate speech or misinformation. Such a law would include issues of foreign influence. The issue of the parliamentary committee in charge of these topics remains for discussion.
Final conference
On 1 October 2024, the final conference of the “Combatting Disinformation in the Western Balkans” project took place. The event presented the key findings from the national and regional dialogues held throughout the project and provided an opportunity to discuss and adopt the Roadmap for regional cooperation on combatting disinformation and advancing media freedom.
