Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy

Russian-backed disinformation campaigns and home-grown hoaxes are taking a toll on Czech democracy, experts say.

Security experts have long warned of the dangers to Czech democracy of pro-Russian, anti-Western disinformation campaigns, many believed to be backed by the Kremlin.

Yet among EU countries, the Czech Republic’s response to a menace designed to destabilise and sow discord is average at best, say those on the front lines of information warfare.

“Politicians are not really eager to burn their fingers over disinformation,” Jakub Kalensky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told participants at a summer school of journalism in the central Czech town of Havlickuv Brod in August.

Kalensky, who formerly headed the EU’s East StratCom Task Force combating Kremlin-linked disinformation campaigns, said Baltic and Scandinavian states lead the way in tackling fake news, hoaxes and conspiracy theories.

Such falsehoods spread via fringe websites and social media, amplified by “bots” and bogus profiles, before seeping into more established press, mainstream politics and everyday conversation.

In July, Kalensky gave testimony to a US Congress foreign affairs subcommittee on Russian disinformation attacks in Europe that he said were designed “to weaken and destabilise the West at every level”.

“In this effort, the disinformers are spreading heavily polarised messages that trigger strong emotions and sow discord,” he said.

“They spread conspiracies that undermine trust in reliable sources of information; support radical and anti-Western elements in the targeted societies; promote anti-Western, anti-liberal, and anti-democratic politicians; and denigrate politicians who defend Western, liberal, and democratic values, because democracy and the rule of law threaten the survival of the current regime in the Kremlin.”

In Havlickuv Brod, a town named after the so-called father of Czech journalism, Karel Havlicek Borovsky, experts discussed how Russian information warfare plays out in the Czech Republic against a backdrop of home-spun lies.

Among the experts were members of the Czech Elf Group, a band of volunteer students, journalists, teachers and off-duty military personnel who monitor dubious chain emails and fake social media accounts.

Czech Elf Group spokesman Bohumil Kartous said the government-backed Czech Cyber and Information Security Agency was under-staffed, under-resourced and “clearly outmatched” by large-scale purveyors of fake news.

Meanwhile, some high-ranking Czech politicians are themselves responsible for spreading disinformation, further eroding faith in democratic institutions, the experts agree.

Kartous cited the example of Czech Senator Ivo Valenta, who owns Parlamentni listy, an online daily whose reputation for spreading fake news is rivalled only by Czech mutations of Kremlin-linked media such as cz.sputniknews.com or Aeronet.cz.

Critics say the upper house lawmaker is just one of a number of politicians who won their seats by infusing their election campaigns with disinformation strategies.

Along with seeking to undermine the European Union and NATO, many Czech fake news providers whip up anti-immigrant sentiment and rail against the EU for failing to control its borders.

Never mind that the Czech Republic is one of the countries least affected by migration in the bloc.

Read the entire article at Balkan Insight