The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended the online meeting entitled “How to tackle disinformation? Communicating human rights in the digital age” organised by the European Union (EU) Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on 28-29 June 2021. Deniz Servantie from the ABTTF Brussels Office participated in the event which was held in two sections, the panel discussion and workshops.
FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty, who delivered the opening remarks at the event attended by representatives from NGOs operating in the field of human rights in Europe, explained FRA’s principles and solutions to combat disinformation.
In the first day of the meeting at the workshop entitled “How to tackle disinformation”, the panellists which were comprised of Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University’s Agora Institute Peter Pomerantsev, Head of Digital Policy and Strategy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue Chloe Colliver, Senior Legal Officer at Article 19 Gabrielle Guillemin and Principal Adviser on Justice Policy at the European Commission and Member of German Data Ethics Commission and of the Global Council on Extended Intelligence Paul Nemitz indicated that disinformation is threatening human rights generally speaking and they conveyed different solutions, tactics and strategies that can be applied in dealing with disinformation.
On the second day of the event, workshops were held under the moderation of FRA Project Manager Blanca Tapia. ABTTF attended the workshops entitled “Solidarity in times of COVID-19 and disinformation: storytelling and shared values on migration” and “Media communicating on human rights: tackling disinformation to empower people to make choices based on facts”. In the workshops, the importance of education and the responsibility of the media and the need to convey accurate information by media organisations were discussed in order to change misconceptions about migration.
Deniz Servantie from the ABTTF Brussels Office explained the disinformation suffered by the Turkish community in Western Thrace in Greece during the coronavirus pandemic and the attempts to make it a scapegoat in the media through the chat function of the workshops where participants could submit their comments and questions in writing.
