In January 2018, AIAS Fellow and Associate Professor Anja Bechmann was appointed a member of the High Level Expert Group on fake news and online disinformation by the European Commission. The mission of the Group is to contribute to the development of an EU-level strategy on how to tackle fake news and disinformation spread online. 

After months of intense work, the results of the group have been gathered in the report ‘A multi-dimensional approach to disinformation. Report of the independent High level Group on fake news and online disinformation’ that came out this week.

 “The main outcome of the report is that we have recommended a two-step approach starting with a soft collaborative solution that highlights a mutual commitment between key stakeholders and afterwards an evaluation that might lead to a different approach depending on the result. The stakeholders are committed to support research that will outline the scale and scope of disinformation by constructing research centres across Europe and to increase transparency, media literacy, tools and code of practice for tackling disinformation for journalists and platforms and to safeguard the diversity and sustainability of the European news media ecosystem. One of the key issues has been to keep an eye on a potential destruction of trust and to preserve freedom of speech at the same time”, says Anja Bechmann.

Further information

See who are part of the High Level Expert Group (the HLEG)

Read the full report here

Contact

Anja Bechmann, AIAS Fellow, Associate Professor
anjabechmann@aias.au.dk

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) &
Dept. of Media Studies and Journalism, Aarhus University

Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B 
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark