A three-day international conference on "Governance for the Sustainability of Digital Europe" was held this week at the National University "Odesa Law Academy". More than 40 national and foreign scholars, journalists and public figures from the United States, Sweden, Spain, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Ukraine took part in the conference in offline and online formats. One of the features of the conference is that master's students majoring in International Journalism and Public Management and Administration were also involved in the preparation and discussion of the reports.
A roundtable with global experts was held to discuss the issue of countering the spread of fake news and disinformation about COVID-19 and vaccination on social media platforms in the United States, Sweden, and Spain. The presentation of Professor Mikhail Minakov (Kennan Institute, Washington, USA) on the Europeanisation processes that are happening in the European Union and Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, was of particular interest during the discussion.
According to Tetiana Malyarenko, Doctor of Science in Public Administration, Professor of the Department of Journalism at the National University of Law, the development of information technology contributes not only to expanding the range of opportunities but also to the range of threats associated with cyberattacks and the spread of disinformation through computer networks. She regretted that interdisciplinary areas of research (digital journalism, cybersecurity) are underdeveloped in Ukraine, which is currently suffering from hybrid aggression. "This project, by engaging leading European and Ukrainian experts and scholars in dialogue and exchange of views, aims to fill the gap in cybersecurity research and initiate new projects of interest to both the Ukrainian and European academic communities," said Tetiana Malyarenko.
The event was organised by the Ukrainian Institute for Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution in partnership with the Faculty of Journalism of the National University of Odesa Law Academy within the framework of the international project "Towards a Safer Digital Europe: Multi-level Governance to Counter Online Disinformation and Hybrid Threats", funded by the Jean Monnet Programme of the European Union.