The first seminar of the project Disinformation Resilience Dialogue: Lessons Learned from the Central and Eastern Europe took place 6th-8th March 2022 in Brno, Czech Republic. The project is funded by the European Union Erasmus+ program, and the seminar was organized with the support of the Europe Direct Centre Brno. The project is co-organized by a consortium of partners – the European Values Centre for Security Policy, Institute of Strategic Policies, Warsaw Institute Foundation, European Academy Berlin, Internews Ukraine, and Georgia´s Reforms Associates. Twenty-one participants from Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Georgia, four group leaders, and five decision-makers have shared their views, opinions, and knowledge on disinformation, fake news, propaganda, hybrid threats, and the lessons learned and modus operandi of The Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency and the Cybernetic and Information Warfare forces of the Czech Armed Forces.
Some of the speakers were, for example, prof. Miroslav Mareš from the Masaryk University in Brno, Veronika Krátka Špalková – an analyst of the Kremlin Watch Program at the European Values Center for Security Policy and Markéta Štauberová from the Cybernetic and Information Warfare forces of the Czech Armed Forces. The participants were actively involved in discussions with decision-makers and learned about digital resilience and European values through informal learning practices.
One of them was, for example, Suity Hero live-action role play game in which the participants better understood European history and, most importantly, inclusivity, diversity, and cooperation. Finally, the participants brainstormed and discussed in the form of World Café the possible form (methods and tools), content, and teamwork regarding creating the e-learning that the participants will be working on in the upcoming months. Through the regular evaluation and participants’ commitment to filling in their learning journals, the first seminar of this project can be assessed as successful as one of the participants has noted, “The Disinformation Resilience Dialogue project serves to provide a valuable insight into disinformation situation of other countries and create something to help and educate.”
The next seminar of the project will take place in June in Warsaw, and further activities will take place in Bratislava and Berlin. E-learning for young people will be presented at the final online conference in December.
