The POINT 1011 kick-off session: How to spin an invasion?

This year’s edition of the POINT Conference will begin with a panel discussion on new disinformation tactics and hostile narratives emerging in the context of the war in Ukraine and will bring together speakers from Ukraine, Georgia and the Western Balkans. This panel is co-organized by the partner organizations of the Western Balkans Antidisinfo Hub which is a project dealing with the foreign perpetrated disinformation and is implemented in the countries of the Western Balkans region. POINT 1011 opens on Thursday, June 15 at 9 a.m. at the Skenderija Youth Center in Sarajevo.

The war in Ukraine is the largest military conflict on European soil since World War II and is said to be the most covered in the media so far. Social networks certainly play a major role in spreading numerous news, but also disinformation and hostile narratives that appear in new forms. 

In such an environment, fact-checkers play a key role in breaking such phenomena in the public space, revealing the truth, and drawing attention to such harmful content.  

At the opening of the 11th edition of the POINT Conference, we will talk with Yevhen Fedchenko from the Ukrainian fact-checking organization StopFake.org, Olga Myrovych from Lviv Media Forum, Eto Buziashvili from Atlantic Council, Nikola Petrović from ISAC Fund from Serbia and Filip Stojanovski from North Macedonian organization Metamorphosis Foundation about what kind of disinformation tactics are present, what are the experiences of Ukrainian fact-checkers in fighting disinformation, as well as those from the Caucasus and the Balkans,

The host of the panel discussion will be Tijana Cvjetićanin from CA “Why not”, editor of the Bosnian fact-checking initiative Raskrinkavanje.

The panel is organised as a part of the project Western Balkans Anti Disinformation Hub: Exposing Malign Influences Through Watchdog Journalism, implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation (North Macedonia) in partnership with Faktoje (Albania), International and Security Affairs Centre – ISAC (Serbia), Center for Democratic Transition – CDT (Montenegro), Sbunker (Kosovo) and UG “Zašto ne” / CA “Why not” (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub project aims to increase situational awareness and public knowledge about disinformation ecosystems in Western Balkans. Its goal is to expose foreign malign influence in Western Balkans by mapping the flow of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda originating from external actors.

The complete POINT 1011 Conference agenda is available at the link.