{"id":1651,"date":"2019-09-09T18:21:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T16:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/czechpoints.com\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2019-09-09T18:21:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T16:21:14","slug":"disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russian-backed disinformation campaigns and home-grown hoaxes are taking a toll on Czech democracy, experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security\n experts have long warned of the dangers to Czech democracy of \npro-Russian, anti-Western disinformation campaigns, many believed to be \nbacked by the Kremlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet \namong EU countries, the Czech Republic\u2019s response to a menace designed \nto destabilise and sow discord is average at best, say those on the \nfront lines of information warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPoliticians\n are not really eager to burn their fingers over disinformation,\u201d Jakub \nKalensky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told \nparticipants at a summer school of journalism<\/a> in the central Czech town of Havlickuv Brod in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalensky,\n who formerly headed the EU\u2019s East StratCom Task Force combating \nKremlin-linked disinformation campaigns, said Baltic and Scandinavian \nstates lead the way in tackling fake news, hoaxes and conspiracy \ntheories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such falsehoods \nspread via fringe websites and social media, amplified by \u201cbots\u201d and \nbogus profiles, before seeping into more established press, mainstream \npolitics and everyday conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, Kalensky gave testimony<\/a>\n to a US Congress foreign affairs subcommittee on Russian disinformation\n attacks in Europe that he said were designed \u201cto weaken and destabilise\n the West at every level\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn\n this effort, the disinformers are spreading heavily polarised messages \nthat trigger strong emotions and sow discord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Among\n the experts were members of the Czech Elf Group, a band of volunteer \nstudents, journalists, teachers and off-duty military personnel who \nmonitor dubious chain emails and fake social media accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Czech Elf Group spokesman Bohumil Kartous said the government-backed Czech Cyber and Information Security Agency<\/a> was under-staffed, under-resourced and \u201cclearly outmatched\u201d by large-scale purveyors of fake news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile,\n some high-ranking Czech politicians are themselves responsible for \nspreading disinformation, further eroding faith in democratic \ninstitutions, the experts agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Critics\n say the upper house lawmaker is just one of a number of politicians who\n won their seats by infusing their election campaigns with \ndisinformation strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along\n with seeking to undermine the European Union and NATO, many Czech fake \nnews providers whip up anti-immigrant sentiment and rail against the EU \nfor failing to control its borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never mind that the Czech Republic is one of the countries least affected by migration in the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the entire article at Balkan Insight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s response to a menace designed to destabilise and sow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[296],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDisinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy - Czech Points<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy - Czech Points\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\u2019s response to a menace designed to destabilise and sow […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Czech Points\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/czechpoints\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-09T16:21:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-09T16:21:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/czechpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Putin-Zeman-Babis.jpg?fit=630%2C394&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@czech_points\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@czech_points\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pavel Burian\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy - Czech Points","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy - Czech Points","og_description":"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\u2019s response to a menace designed to destabilise and sow […]","og_url":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/","og_site_name":"Czech Points","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/czechpoints","article_published_time":"2019-09-09T16:21:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-09T16:21:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":630,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/czechpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Putin-Zeman-Babis.jpg?fit=630%2C394&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@czech_points","twitter_site":"@czech_points","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pavel Burian","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/","name":"Czech Points","description":"Czech Republic News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/czechpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Putin-Zeman-Babis.jpg?fit=630%2C394&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/czechpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Putin-Zeman-Babis.jpg?fit=630%2C394&ssl=1","width":630,"height":394,"caption":"Milos Zeman, Andrej Babis Vladimir Putin graffiti"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/","name":"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy - Czech Points","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2019-09-09T16:21:07+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-09T16:21:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d93b982f35eacd83772a1b5c4334a6f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/disinformation-campaigns-taking-a-toll-on-czech-democracy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Disinformation campaigns taking a toll on Czech democracy"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d93b982f35eacd83772a1b5c4334a6f","name":"Pavel Burian","url":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/author\/pavelb\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/czechpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Putin-Zeman-Babis.jpg?fit=630%2C394&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechpoints.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}