Disinformation has become a part of our everyday life, a powerful weapon with which it is possible to influence important political and social processes in organized, and even more important in unorganized states. Therefore, it is extremely important to build society's resistance to such anomalies and to develop the critical awareness of citizens and to build a culture of questioning the veracity of facts.
This was highlighted today at a panel discussion at VERN' University "Strengthening Society's Resilience to Disinformation", which featured guests Mikael Tofvesson , Director of the Operations Department at the Psychological Defense Agency of the Kingdom of Sweden, Tom Morin-Robinson from NATO's Public Diplomacy Service, Dr. Nikola Brzica , defense and security expert and former Assistant Minister of Defense for Defense Policy and Rector of VERN' University, and security expert Prof. Dr. Vlatko Cvrtila .
The event was opened by H.E. Diane Helen Madunic , Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to the Republic of Croatia, and the gathering was also greeted by the Rector of VERN' University and Josip Popovac , Director of the Electronic Media Agency and President of the Electronic Media Council.
The opening speech to the discussion was given by Mikael Tofvesson, who presented the work of his agency and emphasized that its main task is to develop and coordinate the development of Sweden's psychological defense against disinformation, in cooperation with public authorities and other stakeholders in society. The purpose of psychological defense is to protect Sweden's democratic society, free formation of opinion, independence and fundamental freedoms.
"Due to the deteriorating security situation in Europe, Sweden is redefining its national defense. We have a long tradition of preparing to combat psychological warfare, and we do not consider this exclusively a problem related to our Government, agencies or authorities. Citizens and the media are an integral part of creating the resilience of society and they are important stakeholders for us," emphasized Tofvesson .
"As a society, we have developed a kind of cognitive laziness and have become prone to consuming information that can influence our attitudes, thoughts and behaviors, but without having time for any in-depth fact-checking. The broadest layers of society cannot even deal with this, because it is a sophisticated and complex system. The example of Sweden is excellent because it shows that in an environment where there is a developed awareness that such actions are being taken, especially in international crises, they have an agency that can warn the population about such phenomena, while in our country and in other countries, such analyses are handled by agencies that cannot and do not communicate publicly," emphasized Rector Cvrtila .
Defense and security expert and author of the book "Modern Warfare" , Dr. sc. Nikola Brzica concluded that "The West today is in one information space, and Russia is in another information space, and we are all served information that suits the sender best. I would like to remind you that in 2014, former US President Barack Obama used the term 'possibility of managing the situation' in the context of relations between Russia and Ukraine, which we should be very aware of today."
The event was jointly organized by VERN' University, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in the Republic of Croatia, and the Agency for Electronic Media, whose Deputy Director Robert Tomljenović presented the NPOO program "Establishment of a Media Fact-Checking and Public Disclosure System" before the panel.
