Experts from the National Council conducted a study visit to Germany, where they held working meetings with the DW Akademie team in Bonn and with the representatives of the media regulator of the Federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf. The meetings, which took place at the end of November, were devoted to exchanging experiences in the field of media literacy, countering disinformation, and modern content monitoring tools.
During the meeting with DW Akademie, the parties discussed current initiatives aimed at developing media literacy in Ukraine and improving compliance with journalistic standards.
Representatives of DW Akademie talked about their educational programs for children and teenagers: interactive training sessions, game-based lessons, and seminars involving regional departments of the Ministry of Education and schools. Such events are held in various cities across Ukraine, but not on a regular basis. Separately, our German colleagues drew attention to the need to work with older audience, who is often more vulnerable to disinformation.
Dmytro Kardash, Deputy Director of the Directorate, Head of the Strategic Development and Project Work Department at the National Council highly estimated the Ukrainian regulator’s cooperation with DW Akademie, in particular the practical workshops “Cognitive biases in the media. New trends in media and information literacy,” which were held in six cities across Ukraine. He also shared the regulator’s experience in conducting media surveys on media literacy and the application of professional standards. During the meeting, a guidance of recommendations for journalists and other employees, developed on the basis of the results of this survey, was presented.
Ihor Tymofieiev presented the Ukrainian media regulator’s approaches to overcoming hate speech in the media, including countering pro-Russian military propaganda narratives. They discussed the preparation of analytical reports, interaction with state institutions, the adoption of regulatory decisions, and the conduct of training for the media on preventing hate speech, discrimination, and war propaganda. The parties agreed to continue cooperation in these areas.
In Düsseldorf, during a meeting with the German media regulator, the National Council’s delegation learned about the work of unique artificial intelligence-based software used by the North Rhine-Westphalia media regulator to search for and identify information that constitutes gross violations of media law.
The system automatically tracks content that may contain gross violations of the law, including war propaganda, hate speech, and prohibited Nazi symbols. The monitoring operator sets the search parameters and then works with the results: contacting the media, preparing draft decisions, and other necessary documentation. The National Council’s experts were interested in the program’s algorithms and shared their own approaches to monitoring, including the online environment.
The meetings provided an opportunity for substantive exchange of experience and became an important step in further cooperation between the Ukrainian media regulator and German partners.
