Ministry of culture elaborates media literacy program to counter Russian propaganda

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) is preparing a media literacy program to counter Russian propaganda in the context of hybrid warfare. The head of the strategic communications sector at the ministry Oleksiy Tarabukin said it at the round table, as Ukrinform reported.

"We have projects to launch a large-scale program on media literacy," Tarabukin said.

At the same time, he noted that in order to react effectively the information war being waged against Ukraine, the domestic legislation should be adapted to.

"We need the legislative instruments. I am to support such legislation, but it is necessarily it will be efficacious and won’t infringe the rights and freedoms of citizens," he stressed.

As IMI reported, on November 20, the Ministry of Culture and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Information Policy presented the bill on mass media to limited number of online media professionals.

The bill has a controversial clause on equating bloggers with the mass media, and if so, how many subscribers must be and it will raise question not only on taxation, but on content as well.

The ministry is to elaborate the law defining the concept of manipulations in mass mediaand protection of the journalists.

On November 6, the minister of culture Volodymyr Borodyansky said that in Ukraine they plan to increase the responsibility of journalists for the dissemination of false or manipulative information. According to him, the concept plans to introduce the concept of "manipulation of public opinion" and its criteria.

Earlier, Vladimir Borodyansky proposed to impose criminal responsibility for deliberately distorting public opinion.

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