Moldova: Learning Key Skills to Counter Disinformation
Training events cover advanced fact-checking, conflict sensitive communication and open-source intelligence.
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Moldova: Learning Key Skills to Counter Disinformation
Training events cover advanced fact-checking, conflict sensitive communication and open-source intelligence.
Nearly 100 journalists, media students and communication professionals from across Moldova took part in a series of IWPR workshops on how to report conflict in the age of fake news.
Moldova is particularly vulnerable to Kremlin-sponsored disinformation and the four days of interactive learning sessions, facilitated by British journalist Nick Raistrick in February, focused on ways to document and dismantle falsehoods in the public space.
The training events in Ungheni, Comrat and Balti covered topics like advanced fact-checking, conflict sensitive communication and open-source intelligence. As well as giving journalists, communicators and campaigners from across Moldova the knowledge and skills to spot disinformation in all its forms, the idea was to make sure that participants came away with the confidence to successfully counteract such false messages.
Attendees included representatives of institutions including local government officials and the border guard, so as to raise awareness that communicators in public institutions must respond to real-time disinformation.
In addition, a session for journalists and broadcasters was held in the Moldovan capital Chisinau, aimed at giving people the skills to make podcasts with minimal resources.
The first workshop was held in the municipality of Ungheni in western Moldova and attended by journalists from the regional and local media, City Hall communicators, civil servants working with Ukrainian refugees and students.
Border Police employees from the west of the country, who also participated in this workshop, wanted to learn more about crisis communication in cases when their institutions are targeted by Russian disinformation.
"Not all fact checkers are created equal,” Raistrick told participants, sharing his tips on best practice. “A good fact-checker will examine all sides to reach conclusions, be transparent about the sources used and working methods. A fact checker's primary mission is to deliver verified news and information.”
The journalists at the Ungheni training agreed that a reporter must be prepared to act when exposed to the avalanche of information.
Natalia Morari, a journalist at the Unghiul regional newspaper, explained that the first wave of fake news hit during the pandemic, and had continued to grow ever since.
"The process of informing people around the world has suffered for the last three years,” she continued. “The tools of disinformation have gained such scope that journalists find it difficult to split the thread in four, so to speak, and bring only truthful and first-source information to the public. That is why it is very important that we educate ourselves to know various ways to check and recheck the news that is online.”
A major challenge had come in the form of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she said, adding, “journalists were overloaded and had to work around the clock to report correctly. In order to do their job as accurately and fairly as possible, reporters must know all the elements of disinformation, because, as we learned at this training, the truth is the first victim in a war”.
The second workshop was held in the south of the country, in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, a Russian-speaking region especially vulnerable to disinformation.
Journalists from the cities of Comrat and Barasabeasca in the south of Moldova also attended the training, together with communicators from the border police.
The reporters, mostly Russian-speaking, pledged that in the future they would be more careful when selecting information to share.
"In today's age of information technology, knowing the elements of wartime disinformation is very important,” said Elena Ratcoglo, a journalist at the GRT outlet. “Disinformation reduces the critical spirit of public opinion, which contributes to the spread of a cynical point of view.
“The main task of a journalist is to convey the truth to the reader and the viewer. This requires a careful approach to the subject on the part of the journalist,” she concluded.
The third day of training took place in the north of the country, in the municipality of Balti. Participants were local journalists and civic activists.
Raistrick pointed out that conflict of all kinds could be reported on fairly with the proper approach.
Constantin Hairedtinov, an investigative journalist and fact-checker from the local Esp.md portal, emphasised that amid hybrid war, when Moldova faced internal and external propaganda, all communicators must be familiar with various verification methods.
At the fourth training, Raistrick offered journalists and students a workshop in which they discussed whether the podcast format had a future in Moldova.
Vasile Lipcean, a student at the faculty of journalism and communication sciences of the State University of Moldova, said that such practical workshops significantly helped he and his contemporaries consolidate theoretical knowledge.
The sessions were organised and conducted by IWPR, in collaboration with the Association of Independent Press and the Stopfals.md portal.
A handbook is also being produced to enable journalists and communicators to spot disinformation and cover conflict in an accurate, impartial and sensitive manner.
This publication was prepared under the “Countering Disinformation in Moldova” project.
