Comunidad Informada: Strengthening information integrity in South America

In light of this situation, CFI, with the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), has launched Comunidad Informada, a project aimed at combating disinformation in the region.
The first activities were launched in Colombia and Peru. Two countries, two approaches: on the one hand, a debate on ideas; on the other, training in fact-checking.
These sessions form the first stage of the project, which is set to be rolled out across five countries in South America.

In Bogotá (Colombia), civil society organisations are launching a series of workshops on disinformation

The project’s first workshop was held in Bogotá, organised by the Gabo Foundation, the project’s local partner, and brought together around thirty stakeholders from Colombia’s information ecosystem (journalists, academics and members of civil society) to discuss the current challenges facing information integrity and how to tackle disinformation in the region.

Hosted by journalist Ginna Morelo, a specialist in disinformation in Colombia, this session helped to identify cooperation opportunities between the media, universities, fact-checkers, civil society organisations and international institutions, thereby strengthening a collaborative and multi-sectoral approach.
This meeting has set in motion a regional initiative that will continue in Lima (Peru), Quito (Ecuador), La Paz (Bolivia) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).

A final regional event will also be organised to consolidate the lessons learnt and to draw up recommendations on two priority areas: how civil society can curb disinformation, on the one hand, and build collaborative networks between different sectors, on the other.

In Lima, Peru, fact-checking put to the test during the elections

Together with its partner, Agence France Presse, CFI organised two fact-checking workshops for journalists in Peru. The aim is to strengthen their journalistic skills in order to provide audiences with more rigorous media coverage of the presidential elections.
These journalists have undertaken several training courses designed to help them better identify, track and verify disinformation in digital environments. These sessions combined work on practical tools for digital verification, image analysis and tracking of viral narratives, as well as fact-checking methodologies applied to everyday journalism.

One of the features of these workshops was the diverse backgrounds of the participants, which fostered fruitful discussions on the challenges posed by disinformation in different regions of Peru, as well as on the creation of collaborative networks amongst journalists.
In addition to their learning component and the exchange of ideas about fact-checking practices, these meetings provided an opportunity to discuss, more broadly, the challenges currently facing the media and journalists in South America in the face of the rapid spread of disinformation, the impact of digital platforms and the need to strengthen public trust in the news.

The next fact-checking workshops will be held in Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia, thereby continuing the regional initiative launched by Comunidad Informada to strengthen the capacity of media professionals to tackle disinformation challenges in South America.