Hosted by MEP Jaromír Štětina (EPP, CZ)

The Eastern Partnership media landscape and capacity of the EU Eastern neighbours to monitor and confront propaganda is the focus of this debate. The enduring monopolization of the media market by state or powerful elites has deprived the audiences in the EaP countries of an effective variety of sources of information. At the same time, the region is involved in the disinformation war in which the Eastern Partnership is presented as an anti-Russian project that leads to the loss of sovereignty of the partner countries.

How to sustain independent media outlets confronting propaganda? What is the role of the public service broadcasters? What can the media communities in the EU and EaP countries learn from each other?

Introductory remarks by MEP Jaromír Štětina (EPP, CZ)

Moderated by

• Natalia Yerashevich, Director of Secretariat, Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF)

Speakers:

• Boris Navasardian, Member of the EaP CSF Steering Committee, President of the Yerevan Press Club
• Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, Director of Belsat TV
• Miriam Lexmann, Director of the EU Office, International Republican Institute
• Jakub Kalenský, Member of the East StratCom Task Force, EEAS