Ahead of the European elections, a two-day "Local Media Seminar" was held at the Zagreb Representation of the European Commission in the Republic of Croatia on March 4th and 5th, bringing together more than 40 representatives of various media outlets (television, radio, print, web) from all over Croatia.
The goal of the seminar was to familiarize editors and journalists with the European Union legislation on the way to monitor elections and election campaigns, and to analyze current topics, from pre-election disinformation, through the rule of law, to SLAPP ( Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation ) lawsuits and the fight against fake news.
As part of the program section "National Recovery and Resilience Plan and Fact-Checking in Croatia", a presentation of projects co-financed through European Union funds was held, including a project aimed at combating the spread of disinformation and fake news in the tourism sector, led by VERN' University.
The thematic panel discussion moderated by Andrea Čović Vidović , Acting Head of the EC Representation in the Republic of Croatia and Head of the Media Team, featured Robert Tomljenović from the Agency for Electronic Media, Nika Šiprak Wendling from the Center for Missing and Abused Children, and Vanja Koljan from VERN' University, who presented the project of establishing VERN's fact-checking service, TurFacto, to the gathered representatives of local media.
The project leader is VERN' University, and the project partners are the Agency for Electronic Media and the Croatian Association of Digital Publishers.
Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the European Union or the European Commission, nor of the Agency for Electronic Media. The European Union and the European Commission, nor the Agency for Electronic Media, cannot be held responsible for them.
