Authors
Viktorija Car, Iva Nenadić
Publication date
2023
Conference
The State of the European Union-a need for unity and solidarity
Pages
157-165
Description
European Union’s policies to address multifaceted and ever evolving problem of disinformation have been consolidating over the past five years. A so called “European approach to tackling online disinformation” has been set by the European Commission’s 2018 Communication, which acknowledged the complexity of the phenomenon and rapid developments in the digital environment, and accordingly announced comprehensive and adjustable policy solutions. The focus of this paper is on fact-checking, which occupies one of the key roles in the European approach to online disinformation. Over the past years fact-checking has been growing as a successful market, supported also by EU policies and public financing. At the same time, media organizations appear to be less prominent or are even completely absent from some relevant policy and financial streams. The discussion focuses on potential implications that such separation between fact-checking and the media may have for sustainability of journalism and the public interest–having in mind that fact-checking is primarily debunking disinformation that is already out there, while strengthening the media and professional journalism could prevent some deceiving narratives from reaching wider public in the first place, and in any case to counterbalance disinformation.
Scholar articles