On the 30th of July, 2021, under the Cooperation for a Common Future initiative, SEE in Action, and Youth Alliance Krusevo co-hosted an event concerning the “pandemic” of fake news.

Key speakers Bojan Kordalov, Communicologist-PR, and Social Media Specialist, and Alexandra Voudouri, Foreign & EU affairs editor/ analyst & special advisor for SA European Service Network (ESN), responded on hot topics related to disinformation concerning the vaccines, on how the EU reacted to the pandemic and the role of social media in the trim trail of information and consolidation.

Both key speakers and young attendees contributed to an alluring conversation moderated by Aigli Sakelari, leading to further issues and remarks. Some of them were the rise of social media and the declension of mainstream media because of the mistrust of journalists and reporters, and that social media “do not generate original content” rather than represent “mirrors of the society”. How can mainstream and social media be combined to provoke positive dialogue and discussion rather than hate speech and disinformation? How can the civil sector be included in the mainstream media and result in positive changes? How can the phenomenon of disinformation and misinformation be tackled? All those crucial topics were thoroughly answered in the panel.