Disinformation experts are leaving Fico’s government

1 year ago 35

Ministry workers are leaving their posts after the Smer-SD party took power, citing interference and incompatibility, as government members spread hoaxes and pro-Russian narratives in a team that is losing disinformation experts.

Interventions in the fight against disinformation are a significant problem, as Slovakia is one of the countries whose citizens are significantly prone to believe in conspiracies.

The new head of the Slovak Government Office, Juraj Gedra from Smer-SD, has targeted the experts in a video: “These are dozens of political activists who were supposed to make sure that people in Slovakia had the one obligatory correct opinion on topics such as the war in Ukraine, the European Union, NATO, the migration crisis or alternative media,” he said, Denník N reported.

David Puchovský, a social media administrator of the Slovak police, who also led a popular page debunking hoaxes, has proclaimed he is leaving the workplace because of an ”unprofessional interference in strategic communication by the Slovak Ministry of the Interior, due to which it is not possible to ensure the defence capability of the Slovak Republic against hybrid threats at the qualitative level as before.”

Daniel Milo, director of the Interior Ministry’s Centre for Combating Hybrid Threats, has also resigned, explaining that he “cannot continue working in this field with the current composition of the government.” The centre was behind a recent report which tracked the influence of deepfakes on Slovak elections.

The new government has also not extended the contracts of the six officials working for the strategic communication department at the government office.

The Interior Ministry told Euractiv Slovakia it considers hybrid threats to be a “serious risk to the security of citizens” and that it plans to focus on strengthening the state’s resilience against them, adding that it does not plan to reduce personnel.

Denník N reported that the posts are expected to exist for at least two more years, as the EU finances them, but it is unclear who will replace the experts and what their approach to fighting disinformation will be.

Robert Fico and the party’s deputy chairman, Ľuboš Blaha, repeatedly use pro-Kremlin narratives, calling Ukrainians “fascists” and blaming the US for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová was also the face of TV Slovan, which is listed as a “site with questionable content”.

(Natália Silenská, Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)