About
University of Dubrovnik
The University of Dubrovnik is a public university founded on a very long tradition of higher education in Dubrovnik in 2003. The University aspires to be an internationally recognized institution that actively contributes to the local, national, and international academic communities through high-quality education and research. UNIDU has engaged in many international academic projects, including TEMPUS, EU Framework Programmes, Instruments for Pre-accession Assistance, Horizon 2020, and Structural Funds. All UNIDU programs are compatible with the Bologna Declaration. UNIDU is one of Croatia's few higher education institutions offering dual master's degrees. All study programs follow the 3+2+3 scheme, guaranteeing ECTS and mobility of students and teaching staff. UNIDU has 270 employed staff, of which 160 are academic (120 hold a Ph.D. degree) and 20 are administrative and other staff. The primary goal of the University of Dubrovnik is to expand international cooperation programs, which include student and professor exchange and mobility projects, the development of joint studies in foreign languages with international partners (Europe, the United States, and Australia), and ongoing work on forming a small but high-quality university with its own identity.
At UNIDU, students can choose study programs in the following fields: maritime affairs, economics, electrical engineering, computing, aquaculture, mass communication, art and restoration, history, nursing, and finance.
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
AFP is a leading global news agency, providing 24/7 fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of world news across all fields. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world in six languages, with a unique quality of multimedia storytelling spanning video, text, photos and graphics.
Since 2017, AFP has built up the world's largest digital investigation network, with more than 140 journalists to date.
AFP factcheckers monitor online content in local languages, from Amharic to Hindi, Polish or Portuguese. They take into account local cultures, languages and politics and work with AFP’s bureaus worldwide to investigate and disprove false information. AFP’s fact-checking activities are overseen by the digital verification chief editors and regional editors. They pay particular attention to misinformation that can be harmful, impactful and manipulative.
These specialised journalists are a reference in the fight against disinformation and publish in 26 languages on the factcheck.afp.com website.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
FHSS is Croatia's largest higher education institution and an important cultural institution that significantly impacts Croatian culture and society. FHSS is organized through departments and offers 92 university undergraduate and graduate study programs and 15 postgraduate (doctoral) programs. FFHS hosts an impressive number of research activities in numerous areas of social sciences and humanities. In addition, international cooperation at FHSS is in constant expansion. All activities at the FHSS aim to develop diversity, enable its stakeholders' personal growth, and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF ZAGREB UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Political Science of Zagreb University (FPZG) is the oldest political science educational and research institution in this part of Europe offering political science program since 1962 and journalism programs since 1971. Since academic year 2005/2006 political science and journalism programs have been reorganized according to Bologna model into undergraduate and graduate programs. FPZG also offers 11 postgraduate specialist MA programs and an integral doctoral program in political science.
In fulfilling socially responsible dimension of its mission, the faculty has been recognized as a research institution that can offer expert knowledge and advisory services to various stakeholders in the process of public policy development, with an emphasis on supporting active Croatian EU membership and full utilization of its development potential. Through its research, educational and public activities, FPZG promotes democratic values, institutions and political culture and offers its academic expertise to the public in the process of public policy development and implementation and making of collective decisions. Evidence based policy making has become even more important since Croatia joined the EU, and the Faculty of Political Science, along with other University entities, sees it as its mission to contribute to these processes.
FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING, University of Zagreb
FER is a leading higher education institution in the field of electrical engineering, computer science, and information technology in Croatia. It offers diverse study programs covering a wide range of areas, including electronics, computer science, telecommunications, and energy. FER Zagreb has an excellent academic community with highly qualified professors and researchers who participate in numerous national and international projects. At FER, students have the opportunity to engage in real-world projects, gain practical knowledge, and develop the skills necessary for a successful career in the industry. FER Zagreb also promotes innovation and entrepreneurship through collaboration with industrial partners and supports the development of technological solutions for societal challenges.
GONG
Gong is citizens' megaphone: disrupting corruption and building a liberal democracy. Gong is a democracy watchdog, a think-do tank focused on enhancing democratic processes and institutions as well as developing democratic political culture. Today Gong's core portfolio includes anti-corruption, civic education, media literacy, active civil society and responsible and independent media. Gong was founded as an election observation organization in 1997 and since then has been active in non-partisan election observation, including in European elections.
Over the last 25 years of public engagement, Gong has changed from a grassroots organization into one of Croatia’s most influential and vocal advocacy organizations grounded in strong and focused policy research and close collaboration with investigative journalists, policy experts and engaged in a number of legislative and policy monitoring initiatives geared towards greater transparency and fairness of the electoral process, management of conflict of interest of public officials, improved access to information, more inclusive policy-making, greater political accountability, increased civic participation and resilient civil society.
Gong implements its activities by combining the methods of research, education, public advocacy, and public communication.
OŠTRO
Oštro is a unique non-profit investigative journalism center in the Adriatic region that nurtures investigative and data journalism, champions the "right to know" as one of the fundamental human rights, and contributes to cultivating future journalists.
Aside from investigating crime, corruption, the environment, and other pressing topics, Oštro has been running a fact-checking project – Razkrinkavanje.si – since May 2019. Thus far, the small team has analyzed over 480 statements, tweets, advertisements, and other types of statements and media content. In November 2020, Oštro became Slovenia's only verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network's Code of Principles. Oštro is also a partner of EDMO.
Since its inception, Razkrinkavanje.si has also been an Incubator for Investigative Journalists. We bring journalism students and junior reporters, straight out of college, to the project for learning-by-doing opportunities, as fact-checking media statements and content is a very effective way to acquire strong critical and lateral thinking abilities, research skills, and – most importantly – an unwavering focus on the public interest in journalism. So far, there have been 16 students mentored at Oštro.
N1 - Adria News
N1 is the first regional and national 24-hour news and current affairs platform (TV, web, and mobile) broadcasting to over 20 million people in the Adriatic Region. N1, CNN's exclusive news channel affiliate, started in 2014 with production centers in Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Zagreb. The latest addition to the N1 family is the portal n1info.si, which was opened two years ago in Slovenia.
N1’s production centers have their own editorial approach, with journalists and web and mobile platforms creating separate content for four countries. N1 employs over 450 professional broadcast and web journalists who produce news, informative, sports, entertaining, and educational content.
XWiki SAS
With thousands of organisations using our software, XWiki is the leader of professional and collaborative Open Source solutions worldwide. XWiki SAS (France) and XWiki Software SRL (Romania) bring together 50 highly skilled professionals who develop the XWiki software, provide customisations for enterprise customers, and also engage in innovative research projects. XWiki has participated in the STAMP H2020 project, and multiple H2020 projects (RISCOSS, LearnPad, STAMP, FASTEN).
The fourteen existing national or multinational hubs cover all 27 EU Member States as well as Norway, in the EEA.
Each national and multinational hub constitutes a network of organisations active in one or several Member States, to provide specific knowledge of local information environments so as to strengthen the detection and analysis of disinformation campaigns, improve public awareness, and design effective responses for national audiences.
By focusing on emerging digital media vulnerabilities and disinformation campaigns relevant to a specific territory and/or linguistic area, each hub represents a crucial source of knowledge on local information environments.
EDMO is a European multidisciplinary community gathering academic researchers, fact-checkers, media practitioners, digital literacy experts and other relevant actors in order to actively detect, analyze and expose disinformation campaigns across Europe.
Each hub will contribute to:
- Detecting and analysing disinformation campaigns, as well as producing content to support mainstream and local media and public authorities in exposing harmful disinformation campaigns;
- Organising media literacy activities at national or multinational level;
- Providing support to national authorities for the monitoring of online platforms’ policies and the digital media ecosystem.
Through the Connecting Europe Facility, the European Commission allocated more than 11 million euros to finance the first eight hubs which were officially announced in May 2021. In December 2022, six new hubs have been established through the Digital Europe Programme with about 8 million euros in EU fundings. EDMO and its regional hubs are independent from any national or EU public authority.
More info: https://edmo.eu/edmo-hubs/
The European Digital Media Observatory is a network of consortia that brings together a multidisciplinary and transnational community of independent fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and researchers engaged in detecting, exposing and countering disinformation, while developing the epistemological bases for relevant policies, notably in the field of media, digital services and associated educational programmes. It consists of a central platform, EDMOeu, which connects and coordinates the activities of 14 national or regional Hubs across 27 EU countries and Norway, to ensure their widest possible impact, in collaboration with media organisations, online platforms, field experts and policy makers.
While each member of the EDMO Network carries out its activities in full autonomy, in accordance with the specific terms and conditions established within each consortium, all members jointly pursue a common mission, which is to foster a deeper understanding of, and improved responses to disinformation, disseminate research results, test solutions, and contribute to a more transparent, trustworthy and resilient information ecosystem. In pursuing their mission, all members of the EDMO Network are committed to the following guiding principles:
1. Independence
All members of the EDMO Network have set up governance structures that safeguard their independence, particularly with regard to governments, the European institutions and public or private funders. All members freely choose the themes they intend to address, whether in research subjects, fact-check articles or media and information literacy actions, while providing a pluralistic, inclusive and open platform that focuses on the challenges of disinformation. No external funder, whether public or private, may be part of the decision-making bodies of any consortium, nor influence their decision-making processes, including priority setting, working methods and results. The European Commission may participate to such bodies only as an observer for monitoring the proper deployment of relevant funding agreements; it may also exchange information and provide feedback to ensure compliance with such agreements, without impairing, however, the full autonomy and discretion of Network members’ activities.
2. Integrity
Partner organizations within the EDMO Network commit to abide by recognized ethical and professional standards such as the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity or the specific standards applicable to their field of activities (e.g., the European Code of Standards for Independent Fact-Checking Organisations of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network).
Moreover, all members of the EDMO Network are committed to appropriately manage possible conflicts of interest within their internal decision-making processes. To this end, any person participating in decision-making bodies and/or processes is bound to disclose substantial interests he/she may have in sectors/sub-sectors of the information ecosystem that might jeopardize his/her independence, to refrain from taking part in activities that could be affected by such conflicting interests, and to step down from his/her role, should such a risk occur. In this context, a conflict of interest refers to a situation where the impartiality and objectivity of a decision, opinion or recommendation of a person taking part to the decision-making processes is or might be perceived as being compromised by a personal interest held or entrusted to a given individual. Relevant personal interests may be of financial or non-financial nature and may concern a personal or family relationship or professional affiliations, including former employments or appointments, and other relevant outside activities.
3. Transparency
All members of the EDMO Network are committed to be transparent regarding the identity of the organisations forming part of the consortium, their funding sources, and ensure that the outcomes of their activities carried out for EDMO, be it in the research, fact-checking, media literacy or policy areas, are publicly accessible.
4. Neutrality
As regards their editorial products and public-facing initiatives, all members of the EDMO Network observe a strict policy of neutrality from political or industry standpoints. Thematic choices, methodological approaches, findings and communications, whether in research subjects, fact-checking articles, media and information literacy actions and policy analyses, are non-partisan in nature and intended to solely serve the public interest.
5. Pluralism
The EDMO Network integrates a significant number of universities, research centres, fact-checking newsrooms, civil society and media literacy organisations, each of them pursuing its own editorial line, research agenda and educational goals in full autonomy. Moreover, each member of the EDMO Network regularly exchanges content with other members for publication on its own platform, so as to offer different perspectives on such topics and foster internal plurality on issues of common interest.
6. Diversity and inclusion
Multidisciplinary and transnational by design, the EDMO Network aims at tackling the multifaceted challenges posed by disinformation, taking into account the specificities of each country or linguistic area it covers. Moreover, its research, fact-checking, policy analysis and media literacy activities are intended to enhance societal resilience across all segments of the population, irrespective of gender, ethnic origins and political or religious beliefs, with special attention to the most vulnerable.
7. Scientifically grounded interventions
The EDMO Network aspires to advance independent, original, high-quality and impact-oriented research on disinformation with a view to offering a body of facts, evidence and tools that gathers stakeholders and acts in the interest of society. For this, it places value on the grounding of new insights into this phenomenon on rigorous scientific theories, hypotheses and methods. It also encourages the development of hybrid approaches that combine methods from the empirical sciences with those of the humanities, as well as research that brings to bear the latest tools and techniques from data and information science.
