An invitation to a talk, “Beyond the Front Line: Fighting the Information War”, at the Ukrainian Institute London on June 19 2014.
AUTHOR
Ukrainian Institute London
Ukrainian journalists are taking on the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. One of their projects, stopfake.org, is a fact-checking website set up to expose the misleading, distorted and sometimes completely fabricated reports created by state-owned Russian news agencies by highlighting suspect stories on its website and explaining which propaganda techniques are being used and why.
We are delighted to invite you to the talk “Beyond the Front Line: Fighting the Information War” at the Ukrainian Institute London, on Thursday, June 19, at 7.00PM by:
Yevhen Fedchenko, one of the founders of stopfake.org, Director of the Mohyla School of Journalism in Kyiv
Katya Gorchinskaya, Deputy Chief Editor of Ukraine’s leading English-language newspaper, the Kyiv Post
Nataliya Popovych, co-founder of the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre
who are visiting the UK this week to speak to MPs and journalists about the aims of the stopfake.org project and to share the methods they use to check facts and uncover fake stories.
Launched in March 2014, stopfake.org is a dedicated fact-checking website run by a group of Ukrainian journalists determined to fight the rising tide of propaganda originating from Russian news outlets. The purpose of the stopfake.org community is to check facts, verify information, and refute distorted information and propaganda about events in Ukraine.
When Yanukovych fled to Russia, and Putin illegally annexed Crimea, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine was already working at full capacity. The journalists started stopfake.org in March to identify, check and expose the lies that were appearing in the news and on social media and to help prevent Putin’s dangerous false narrative about Ukraine gaining credibility in Europe and the rest of the world.
There are a huge number of pieces of propaganda on the stopfake.org website that have been identified, analysed and exposed.
Speaker biographies
Katya Gorchinskaya is an accomplished Ukrainian journalist who has been Deputy Chief Editor of Ukraine’s leading English-language newspaper, the Kyiv Post, since 2008. Ms. Gorchinskaya is also the Regional Editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a non-profit network of investigative journalism centres, and a regular contributing reporter with The Wall Street Journal. Her work is widely cited in Western media reporting on Ukraine’s current political crisis. She is also a sought-after commentator at conferences and international and local television programmes on Ukraine’s politics and current affairs. Her varied journalistic experience includes hosting a television programme, Free People, devoted primarily to economic issues.
Yevhen Fedchenko is co-founder of the fact-checking website stopfake.org and Director of the Mohyla School of Journalism and Head of the Ph.D. Programme in Mass Communications at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine. He has spent almost 20 years in the media industry, covering international stories for different types of media. He was co-founder of the Digital Future of Journalism programme for journalists and Digital Media for Universities Internet journalism curriculum development programme. He teaches courses in international news production and factual programming production. His main interests are digital journalism and innovations, journalism education in transitional societies, news standards, and coverage of international politics in the media. He has contributed his comments to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), BBC, NPR, Public Radio International, Radio Canada International, CBC, and Mashable.
Nataliya Popovych is the co-founder of the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, which was launched to provide the international community with objective information about events in Ukraine and threats to national security, particularly in the military, political, economic, energy and humanitarian spheres. During this crisis period, the Centre operates on a 24/7 basis, and provides support to all the media who cover events in Ukraine. Ukraine Crisis Media Centre was founded by leading Ukrainian experts in the fields of international relations, communications and public relations, who agreed to volunteer their experience and time to help Ukraine amplify its voice in the global dialogue around the recent developments. The Centre functions as a public platform for Ukrainian authorities, experts, representatives of international organizations and diplomatic corps to share day-to-day updates and analysis of the situation in the country.
Image: Ukraine Crisis Media Centre co-founder Nataliya Popovych. Photo: Kyiv Post.
All welcome. Free admission.
