One goal, two approaches: Addressing disinformation in Eurasia
Join the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and IREX on Monday, July 10th for a conversation about their complementary approaches to:
- providing high-quality and reliable news and information,
- building citizens’ media literacy skills, and
- countering disinformation in Eurasia.
This event will be streamed live on BBG.gov
IREX in Ukraine
IREX implemented Learn to Discern in Ukraine through the Citizen Media Literacy Project (CMLP). The nine-month program trained over 15,000 Ukrainians to detect and decode misinformation and propaganda. It also conducted a media literacy campaign that reached approximately 20 million TV viewers, 8 million radio listeners, 10,000 YouTube users, and countless Metro riders.
CMLP produced a short PSA in both Russian and Ukrainian (below) with English translations in the descriptions:
BBG’s Current Time
In 2016, the BBG launched Current Time, a 24/7 Russian-language television and digital network aimed at providing fact-based news and information to Russian speakers in Eurasia and beyond. Current Time Television currently broadcasts to 14 countries including Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics, parts of Central Asia, and Israel. The channel, launched by BBG broadcaster RFE/RL with support from VOA, provides viewers with an alternative to Kremlin-sponsored media when it comes to fractious or underreported issues such as Crimea, the war in Ukraine, and Russia sanctions, as well as evergreen social issues like corruption, labor migration, and minority rights. Current Time’s dynamic digital platforms have built an audience among young news consumers as well. Current Time’s video products were viewed more than 160 million times in the first five months of this year—with half of the views coming from inside Russia itself—on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and Russian social networks such as VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.
About the USAGM
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent international media organization overseen and funded by the US government, puts objective, professional news and information content to work on behalf of U.S. global interests and national security. USAGM networks include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Martí), Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa) and the Open Technology Fund. USAGM programming has a measured audience of 420 million in more than 100 countries and in 64 languages.
