In the project framework, over 500 participants, including students of secondary and tertiary educational institutions, representatives of regional NGOs, and others, participated in media literacy training.
19 activists and experts had an advanced training delivered by the CRISP team represented by Dina Farid and Kateryna Pavlova, supported by intern Zsofia Heidrich, as well as had presentations and expert discussions with program officer of the German Marshall Fund, Zsuzsanna Vegh; managing director at Araminta, Yervand Shirinyan; AI consultant Max Mundhenke; expert at Betterplace Lab, Josefa Kny; and Alyssa McIntyre from the Aspen Institute. The participants also had an opportunity to visit Germany's international news channel Deutsche Welle and meet with representatives of the DW Media Academy. The participants received a warm welcome from H.E. Viktor Yengibaryan, Ambassador of Armenia to Germany.
The group also met and had discussions with Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag Michael Roth, FDP fraction development policy spokesperson Till Mansmann, as well as with Mariette A. Pfister, desk officer, Cultural, social and media relations, Eastern Partnership Program, and Swantje Kortemeyer, Deputy Head of Strategic Communication, Federal Foreign Office. Fruitful talks were dedicated to the presentation of CPS’s vision and ongoing projects, as well as to the discussion of regional political developments and Armenia’s and Germany’s role and approach. The sides highlighted the mutual willingness to hold such meetings regularly, to explore the main directions of activities and development challenges for Armenian civil society and the opportunities of collaboration with European political institutions and state bodies.
The project was concluded with a live stream organised by the Media Centre, discussing the use of international experience for the development of media literacy in Armenia (in Armenian), and the article The Development and Current Issues of the EU-Armenia Cooperation to Contain Disinformation.
The project utilised the experience of the last year's project 'Building societal resilience in Armenia by development of strategic communication skills'.
The project organised in cooperation with V4 partners (Budapest Institute, Institute for Politics and Society, Res Publica Foundation, and Strategic Analysis Think Tank) introduced a course specially tailored for the Armenian context to a group of Armenian public servants and other experts. Case studies and practical examples taken from different countries’ experience additionally helped the participants to relate to the approaches presented, and to compare policy approaches in Armenia, V4 states and beyond.
On 10 April, the course participants and partner experts had a meeting with the ambassador of the Czech Republic Petr Pirunčík, the ambassador of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Hacek, and the head of the political-economic section of the embassy of the Republic of Poland Marcin Różycki. The needs of the participants’ institutions and the possibilities to expand international expert cooperation and professional training activities were discussed.
The project deepened our already established cooperation with policy experts in both Armenia and V4 states, and let to keep developing the policy dialogue with Armenian state agencies.
The conference ‘Disinformation and false narratives as component of hybrid threats’ was organised in Yerevan on 5 December, with live streaming by 1in.am (in Armenian). The presentations at the first panel of the conference, ‘The dilemma "security vs democracy": disinformation and false narratives about Armenia’s political situation and foreign policy’ were also covered in detail by the Aravot daily on 12 December and 13 December. Then, the expert discussion ‘Democracy and security’ was hosted by the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor on 15 December. Two online expert discussions involving distinguished foreign experts took place as well: ‘The role of social media in dissemination of disinformation’ (video in English available) on 11 December, and ‘Disinformation and false narratives about Armenia's cooperation with the EU’ on 18 December. Collection of articles on disinformation and propaganda narratives related to Armenia’s cooperation with the EU, identity issues, and the role of social media has been published (in Armenian).
Between 23 and 27 October, CPS organised the study visit of a group of Armenian experts to Germany within the project framework. In addition to meetings with researchers and representatives of German NGOs working on the issue of disinformation, the group also discussed the current state of Armenia's relations with Germany and EU and the possibilities for development of relations with officials and think tank representatives. The group was also accepted by the ambassador of Armenia to Germany, H.E. Victor Yengibaryan, and discussed the project and other possibilities for cooperation.
Also in the project framework, media literacy trainings for teachers, young activists and students were organised: in Yerevan on 26 September; in Armavir on 30 September; in Gyumri on 14 and 15 October, with two groups of participants; on 25 November in Ijevan; on 26 November in Talin; on 16 December in Masis; on 17 December in Vanadzor; and on 26 December in Yerevan. Certificates were awarded to 175 participants.
The project also included series of trainings for young researchers and students, covering topics such as research design and methodology, media literacy, effective communication, and ways of dealing with hate speech. The project library is mainly in Armenian, with a few related articles in English.
Roundtable discussions The current stage of EU-Armenia relations and anticipated developments and Thirty years since the system change in Europe: lessons learnt, and contemporary challenges and opportunities were organised in October and November 2019. Further events were cancelled because of the pandemic. However, the EaP Monthly Bulletin was published in English for several months afterwards, from March 2020 till January 2021. It is available in our online library: 2020 and 2021.
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