After meeting with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts, Jarockis said that the centre could provide funding for media research, as well as projects for improving media literacy. Funding or various instruments intended for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been envisaged by the Nordic Council of Ministers, i.e., the governmental cooperation fund of the Nordic countries.
“We discussed that it should not be counter-propaganda, it would simply be intended to train journalists and teach them methods and ways of fighting misinformation to make sure that the media is based on facts, as well as to do research. As a matter of fact, it is improvement of journalists qualifications, provision of information to the public and journalistic literacy,” Jarockis told BNS.
The ministry said the centre’s operations would first of all be aimed at journalists working on Russian-language broadcasts in response to the new propaganda challenges. In the vice-minister’s words, the Latvian centre would be built on programs of the Stockholm School of Economic, while in Estonia the support would go to the newly-founded channel for Russian-speakers.
“The accent in Lithuania would be media research. Everything would be headed by the centre to be founded in Riga in early October. Most importantly, the focus would be on professionals seeking to improve their qualifications, not students,” he said.
In Jarockis’ words, specific instruments should be decided after the centre is founded in October.
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