“Digital democracy vs. Digital dictatorship”

Project "Digital democracy vs Digital dictatorship"

The Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law in partnership with the Association of European Journalists in Bulgaria is implementing the project "Digital Democracy vs Digital Dictatorships", supported by the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria within the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

The main goal of the project is to increase media literacy and civic education, as well as public resistance to misinformation and propaganda. As a result, it is expected to create a meaningful counter-narrative with developed and disseminated educational digital materials, as well as to conduct campaigns that enable and stimulate a critical reception of the information that is disseminated on-line.

The project will develop the initiative into two elements: a) generation of discussion content and journalistic materials to be developed into b) social media campaigns.

The following activities are foreseen:

– Conducting research on values in modern Bulgarian society;

– organising discussions within the Civil Hitchhiker's Club, which will generate materials for a following digital campaign. Specific topics will be discussed that directly can be linked to the crises of 2022 (e.g. the war in Ukraine) and that have a significant importance and civic aspect.

– Organizing SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation) trainings aimed at journalists and activists who are critical of institutions. The trainings will present on how to protect themselves and what situations participants should be aware of, with the aim of gaining skills and knowledge on how to avoid lawsuits that would pressure them to take a conformist stance.

The final result is expected to be the creation of a meaningful counter-narrative with educational digital materials developed and disseminated, and campaigns carried out that allow for critical acceptance of information disseminated on-line.

The main target groups are representatives of civil society organisations and the media, and the user is the general public.

The project implementation period is from August 2022 to July 2023.

The project "Digital Democracy vs. Digital Dictatorship" is implemented with financial support of 25,000 EUR provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021, Active Citizens Bulgaria Fund (www.activecitizensfund.bg).