The Solution to Disinformation in Central Europe?

Jakub Ferencik
10 min readOct 11, 2024

Disinformation in Czechia has shifted significantly over the last few years.

As a result, efforts to counter disinformation are increasingly focusing on targeting its financial backers rather than merely educating the population.

I spoke with Project Manager and analyst for the Regional Security Program at Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), Kristina Šefčíková, for Czech Radio’s external service, Radio Prague International, to touch on where the information landscape has changed and what disinformation researchers are doing differently to combat disinformation.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

So, how would you describe the current state of disinformation in Czechia, and particularly I’m interested if there’s been a change in the information landscape since the pandemic in 2020, or even with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022?

“This whole landscape has changed a lot in the past few years because it is actually a very adaptable landscape. These people are always ready to jump on anything that is happening, any narrative, but also any format that is currently popular.

“So, the main change that we have seen is that this whole landscape used to be quite non-transparent and anonymous, mostly consisting of some websites and blogs, but because of the pandemic and also during the…

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Jakub Ferencik
Jakub Ferencik

Written by Jakub Ferencik

Journalist living in Prague | Author of “Up in the Air” and “Beyond Reason” on AMAZON | MA McGill Uni | 750+ articles with 1+ mil. views