INVITATION Ramona Manescu, EPP MEP

Transcription

1 INVITATION Ramona Manescu, EPP MEP Is pleased to invite you to the panel discussion: FRIDAY, 15 TH OF JUNE 10:00 AM ATHÉNÉE PALACE HILTON HOTEL, BUCHAREST Event organized by the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament in partnership with the Global Institute for Cybersecurity Technologies. FOLLOW US ON: /company/gict/ Due to the limited number of places, attendance is possible only with prior registration. To register, please us at MEDIA PARTNERS: IT PARTNER:

2 AGENDA Together with: What is the FAKE NEWS phenomenon and what are the threats it poses to our society. 09:30 10:00 Registration of the participants and networking coffee Moderator: LUCIAN MANDRUTA, Journalist 1 st PANEL 10:00 10:15 RAMONA MANESCU, MEP EPP, AFET EU s perspective of the phenomenon 15 th of June 10:00 AM Hilton Hotel Bucharest Media Partners: 10:15 10:30 ALINA BARGAOANU, High Level Group on fake news and online disinformation Defining the threat 10:30 10:45 HASIT THANKEY, Head of the Civil Preparedness Unit, NATO NATO s approach 10:45-11:00 IULIAN CHIFU, President, Centre for Conflict Prevention and Early Warning The security vulnerability 11:00-11:30 Q&A open session 11:30-11:50 Coffee break 2 nd PANEL 11:50-12:05 SERGE STROOBANTS, European Representative for the Institute for Economics and Peace Is there a global threat? IT Partner: 12:05-12:20 CRISTIAN FRANCU, Computer Scientist, Francu Foundation Founder, former Google Software Engineer The role of global IT players 12:20-12:35 DAN CARBUNARU, Journalist, Calea Europeana How is mass media changing 12:35-13:00 Q&A open session 13:00-13:05 Conclusions 13:05-14:30 Lunch

3 The response at global, European and national level in the fight against FAKE NEWS, and what instruments are available to protect our society. Together with: Moderator: DAN CARBUNARU, Journalist, Calea Europeana 3 rd PANEL 14:30-14:45 ANTONIO MARTUSCIELLO, Commissioner, Authority for Communications Guarantees Italy s large-scale media literacy program 14:45-15:00 MANUEL MATEO GOYET (TBC), Representative of EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society EU s institutional response 15 th of June 10:00 AM Hilton Hotel Bucharest 15:00-15:15 IDA EKLUND LINDWALL, EEAS, East Stratcom Task Force Exposing the Kremlin's toolkit 15:15-15:45 Q&A open session 15:45-16:00 Coffee break 4 th PANEL Media Partners: 16:00-16:15 NIKLAS NOVÁKY, Researcher, Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies Fake news as an international security problem 16:15-16:30 CODRIN SCUTARU, Deputy Managing Director McGuireWoods Consulting Tools in fighting fake news 16:30-16:45 PAUL APOSTOL, Founder, Digital Nation Romania s response to fake news 16:45 17:15 Q&A open session IT Partner: 17:15-17:30 RAMONA MANESCU, MEP EPP, AFET Conclusions and closing remarks

4 Background information: EU s concern for strategic communication is a new topic, brought up not by a natural need, but as a response to the new threats we have to face today. This is strange, because, reading strategic communication s definition 1, one can presume that any organisation should have it. EU began to take action towards a strategic communication plan just in the last two years and only as a reaction (not a proactive move) to the eastern propaganda and Daesh s narrative. Despite its slow response at first, our collective response picked up speed and is already producing results. The most important is the growing awareness regarding the threat we are facing from fake news, misinformation and propaganda phenomenon. The world of information hugely changed in the last 20 years, our interaction with it followed the trend but, at a basic level, our readiness to manage it fell behind. This left us vulnerable. Consequently, various forces in today s world are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities. The real life effects of this vulnerability can be found in tampered elections results in not less than 18 countries, just in This can t come as a surprize. A recent study 3 on six Central and Eastern European countries found out that an average of 10% of the citizens trust online disinformation outlets as relevant sources of information, with a pick of 31% in Romania. The same findings were brought up by a 2018 EU Commission Study on Fake News and Disinformation Online 4. EU s Strategic Communication effort will always be a Sisyphean task as long as we don t address the underlying causes and this must be done in a coordinated manner, covering all 28 MS. Let s not forget that, within the European Union, the vulnerability of one is the vulnerability of all. 1 "strategic communication" is "the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfil its mission." International Journal of Strategic Communication, Volume 1, Issue 1: Defining Strategic Communication, Kirk Hallahan, Derina Holtzhausen, Betteke van Ruler, Dejan Verčič & Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Pages 3-35 Published online: 05 Dec 2007 ( ) FL464 Fake News and Disinformation Online, Survey conducted by TNS Political & Social at the request of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications Networks:

5 Against fake news there is no silver bullet. No institution or company can fight it completely. The answer lies in a joint effort which must involve policy makers, institutions, big and small private companies, media, civil society, and, probably the most important a dedicated effort on long term from the education system. The education system has two major roles in a society: offers training and knowledge for job market readiness offers education for functional citizens The education system must also continuously adapt to a changing environment in order to successfully accomplish its mission. Part of this continuous adaptation, there is an urgent need for our classes of civic and moral education of the primary and secondary school to be complemented by informational education. The effects of lack of such education can be clearly seen in the vulnerable youth and young adult population. This vulnerability is not cancelled even by life experience, as we can see from the mature population that struggles with the same vulnerabilities as the young ones. Bearing these considerations in mind, the Global Institute for Cybersecurity Technologies initiated a series of events that will bring light on two aspects: what is the vulnerability level and how serious is the threat what is the appropriate answer at both Member States and EU level

6 Outcome: The round table discussions will generate several outcomes: a printed collection of written materials, covering the discussed topic from various perspectives, to be circulated among MEPs, decision makers inside the European Commission, the Member States and relevant Institutions a legislative proposal which will be presented to the European Parliament a public consultation process, focused on the round table conclusions, to take place in all the 28 MS languages, targeted on professionals, policy makers, mass-media, influencers and other stakeholders from the educational system and industry awareness pilot project in schools, in one Member State (Romania), in partnership with IT companies an IT pilot project built to assist the public in its protection against fake news and manipulation a follow-up process in relation with the European Commission for a sooner than later drafting of a regulation proposal a follow-up round table One year after with a report on the marked progresses