Travelling over the Christmas holidays can prove a real headache when ticket prices go north, temperatures go south and you go nowhere. Luckily, you enjoy rights under European legislation when your flight is delayed or cancelled. However, there is always room for improvement. On 17 December the Parliament’s transport committee voted in favour of strengthening these rights. Read on to find out what the current situation is and how it could change.
Top story – How to fight disinformation – The European Parliament tackles “fake news”
Citizens often turn to the European Parliament to ask what the European Union (EU) is doing to fight disinformation and the ‘infodemic’.
A growing number of governments, as well as foreign and domestic non-state actors such as extremist movements, are using increasingly sophisticated techniques, including algorithms, automation and artificial intelligence to spread disinformation (meaning deliberately deceptive information) in Europe. With the war in Ukraine, foreign and particularly Russian actors are increasingly interfering in the media and on social networks. One of their main aims is to create confusion and polarise society, thus undermining democracy. The EU has stepped up its efforts to protect its democratic processes from manipulation.
Action taken by the European Parliament
The European Parliament has consistently pushed for a joint European response to disinformation and called for more resources to fight disinformation in EU countries and its neighbourhood. It has done so via its budgetary powers, as well as through hearings and resolutions (further details are available here).
In a resolution of March 2022, based on the work of a Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE), Parliament acknowledges that the EU’s lack of awareness and counter-measures makes it attractive to interference by malicious foreign actors, endangering democracy. It therefore calls for:
- a common strategy and a series of specific measures, such as, banning Russian propaganda channels and requiring platforms to do their part to reduce information manipulation and interference,
- more public funding for independent, pluralistic, and widely-distributed media and fact-checking institutions,
- preventing foreign actors from hiring former high-level politicians.
In March 2022, Parliament set up a new special Committee on Foreign Interference (INGE2). The committee will identify gaps in EU legislation that could be exploited for malicious purposes. It will have a year to present its recommendations.
The European Parliament’s anti-disinformation team monitors and analyses disinformation, cooperates with other institutions and civil society, and organises training and awareness raising activities. The unit can be contacted at [email protected]. The Parliament also has a webpage on ‘How to fight disinformation‘ and shares in-house research as well as information on media literacy and reliable sources through its social media channels.
Action taken by the EU as a whole
The EU’s 2018 action plan against disinformation and the 2020 European democracy action plan have resulted:
- more support, including funding and training, for quality journalism and media literacy,
- a code of practice on disinformation (see related Q&A) between leading social networks, online platforms and advertisers. The signatories commit to employing best practices against disinformation, taking down fake accounts and reporting on their actions. In May 2021, the Commission published guidance to strengthen this code – more information in this press release),
- a digital services act, proposed by the European Commission in December 2020. This aims to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected (more information here).
- the InVID project (which stands for ‘In video veritas‘ – or ‘In video, there is truth’), partly funded by the EU. The project aims to tackle the problem of fake videos on social media, which spread conspiracy theories and other falsehoods. The platform allows users to carry out a reverse image search of videos to detect whether the images have been used in a different context and/or manipulated.
- an EU-supported Social Observatory for Disinformation and Social Media Analysis (SOMA), bringing European fact-checking organisations and researchers together to fight against disinformation.
Action taken by the European Council
Faced with the threat of Kremlin disinformation campaigns, the EU set up an ‘East Strat Com Task force‘ in March 2015. The Task Force exposes false claims from actors close to Russia that seek to undermine the EU and manages a debunking site called ‘EUvsDisinfo‘.
Further reading
- How to spot when news is fake, animated graphic available in all EU languages, European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), February 2019
- Trump’s disinformation ‘magaphone’: Consequences, first lessons and outlook, Briefing, European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), February 2021
- Foreign interference in democracies, Topical Digest, Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE), September 2020
- The sharp power of knowledge: Foreign authoritarian meddling in academia, Study, European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), December 2019
- Regulating disinformation with artificial intelligence, Study, European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), March 2019
Keep sending your questions to the Citizens’ Enquiries Unit (Ask EP)! We reply in the EU language that you use to write to us.
United Nations recognizes Scientology Foundation with Special Consultative to the ECOSOC
New NGO status empowers MEJORA, the Foundation for the Improvement of Life, Culture and Society, to add to accomplishing the objectives of the UN Economic and Social Council and the helpful points of the Scientology religion.
Mejora signifies “improvement” in Spanish, and Fundacion MEJORA is an adept name for the association that has quite recently accomplished Special Consultative Status to the United Nations. Its complete name is Fundacion MEJORA: Foundation for the Improvement of Life, Culture and Society, and MEJORA’s new NGO status furnishes the Church of Scientology with more prominent chance to contribute legitimately to the achievement of the objectives of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, one of the six head organs of the United Nations.
The Foundation MEJORA was established in 2015 by the Church of Scientology of Spain. It is enlisted in that nation’s National Registry of Foundations.
In its application to the UN, the establishment asserted its duty to:
“human improvement through regard for and perception of Universal Human Rights just as the utilization of fundamental beliefs, for example, human rights, balance, resilience, regard for human life, harmony, vote based system, and individual opportunity.”
The Foundation’s strategic to “protect, advance, educate and disperse Human Rights as remembered for the Spanish Constitution just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other global agreements; to advance logical Scientology esteems and practices created by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard focused on progress of the individual and society, and to advance resistance in all parts of common society.”
At the European level, the Foundation is enlisted in the Transparency Register of the European Union. MEJORA has effectively taken an interest in the Faith and Freedom Summit NGO alliance, whose last occasion was held at the European Parliament in Brussels. MEJORA likewise takes an interest in various different activities, occasions, and gatherings in encouraging its strategic.
“to advance sober minded Scientology esteems and practices created by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard focused on progress of the individual and society, and to advance resilience in all parts of common society”
This year points MEJORA’s sixth yearly Religious Freedom Awards introduction, booked for September 6. Awardees remember researchers and unmistakable authorities dynamic for advancing and securing the opportunity of religion or conviction.
The UN Economic and Social Council is one of the six head organs of the United Nations. Built up in 1945 by the UN Charter, the ECOSOC is liable for the bearing and coordination of the financial, social, philanthropic, and social exercises did by the UN.
With this acknowledgment, the Foundation currently has official portrayal at the UN in Geneva, Vienna and New York, with the capacity to introduce composed and oral articulations to different organs, for example, the UN Human Rights Council, and to arrange meetings of its own inside the United Nations.
Bahram Hemdemov Released
On February 13, 2019, Bahram Hemdemov, 55 years old, was released from prison in Turkmenistan after serving a four-year sentence in Seydi prison (LB-E/12). He is now reunited with his wife, Gulzira, and their four children. Mr. Hemdemov was arrested on March 14, 2015, simply for holding a peaceful religious meeting at his home in a suburb of Turkmenabad and was convicted by the Lebap Regional Court on May 19, 2015. The Turkmenistan government granted amnesty to prisoners three times a year on average during Mr. Hemdemov’s imprisonment but overlooked him each time—even though convicted murderers were among those freed. On August 15, 2016, Mr. Hemdemov filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR), which is still pending consideration. Eleven of Jehovah’s Witnesses remain in prison in Turkmenistan for refusal to perform military service despite ten CCPR decisions issued against the government for persecuting and imprisoning young Witnesses who are conscientious objectors.
Australia Channel 9’s Ben McCormack under Child Pornography charges
Ben McCormack, the host of Channel 9’s A Current Affair program, was suspended after police raided the Sydney, Australia, TV station in their investigation of his alleged involvement with “sexually explicit” child pornography.
(Published originally by STAND)
McCormack, who has worked at Channel 9 for 25 years, according to the Daily Mail is being investigated for sending child pornography using a carriage service and engaging in sexual conversations about children.
McCormack gained notoriety for his pursuit of convicted sexual predator Robert Hughes, an Australian actor found guilty in a jury trial of nine counts of sexual assault and indecent assault and sentenced to six years in jail without parole.
McCormack’s apparent bent for faking news, inciting racial divisions and questionable sexual misconduct fits his profile of also attacking peaceful religious activity such as the community betterment programs of the Church of Scientology.
While Channel 9 continues to defend McCormack, calling him “decent,” he is known to have stirred controversy and criticism over the years for reports he aired on A Current Affair that turned out to be false and misleading.
His November 2012 report that a shopping center in northwest Sydney had been taken over by Asian retailers and Australian shopkeepers had been “kicked out” was investigated and found to be false. It was widely condemned as racist and led to the station receiving a deluge of complaints. Stand-in host Leila McKinnon was forced to apologize on-air for the story. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, a national media watchdog, determined the story was not only inaccurate but was “likely to provoke intense dislike and serious contempt” of Asian people.
McCormack was under fire again last year when his reporting was slammed by public relations luminary Roxy Jacenko after A Current Affair ran a story called “Resort Roxy.” The program claimed, falsely it turned out, that she had checked into a $7,000-a-night luxury retreat with her two children the same weekend her husband, Oliver Curtis, was sentenced to two years in prison for insider trading.
“As her insider trader husband awaits classification within the jail system, within hours of his sentence Roxy has taken off. And you won’t believe where,” McCormack said in his report.
But shortly thereafter, Ms. Jacenko posted a photograph of herself sitting at her desk at work. Her response posted on Instagram: “Really A Current Affair? … Looks like my bum and feet are firmly placed at my desk in my office.”
McCormack’s journalism also made quite a stir in 2008 when he led a protest of disgruntled game show contestants to stage a live on-air ambush of David Koch and Melissa Doyle of competitor Channel 7. McCormack claimed that Channel 7 had shortchanged National Bingo Night participants and he invaded a live broadcast of Channel 7’s Sunrise show with angry contestants in tow. A Channel 7 spokesman dismissed the stunt as an “act of desperation to try and find an audience.”
Ortega is best known as an apologist for Backpage.com, described by the California Attorney General as the “world’s top online brothel,” when he was editor at Village Voice that carried the sex ads.
McCormack’s apparent bent for faking news, inciting racial divisions, and questionable sexual misconduct fits his profile of also attacking peaceful religious activity such as the community betterment programs of the Church of Scientology. No one believed him, but that he would attack religious people with his defamatory and incendiary speech marks him as a hateful bigot. Proverbially, it was only a matter of time before it would all catch up with him. And now it has.
As a final note, McCormack’s U.S. cohort in abusive reporting, Tony Ortega, an out of work, hate-blogger based in New York, was interviewed three times by McCormack. Their close connection is yet to be fully explored, but Ortega is best known as an apologist for Backpage.com, described by the California Attorney General as the “world’s top online brothel,” when he was an editor at Village Voice that carried the sex ads. Ortega was ousted from the Voice and former Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer and former owners Michael Lacey and James Larkin are under sex trafficking, pimping, and pimping a minor felony charges.
