On Monday, October 24, at the start of the 11th UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week in Latvia, as well as preparing for the 104th anniversary of the Proclamation of Independence of the Republic of Latvia the President of Latvia Egils Levits together with young people in the discussion "The image of my Latvia. How to distinguish information from disinformation?” will debate about the role of media and information literacy and the impact of disinformation on perceptions of Latvia.
The media and information literacy of every Latvian resident affects his or her own life and how safe our society and country are in general, how successful is its development. Therefore, it is important that media literacy skills are taught to the majority of society, equipping them with necessary ability to evaluate information critically.
"To navigate the ocean of information, you need mental training and skills, critical thinking and trained media literacy muscles," says President Egils Levits.
In the discussion "The image of my Latvia. How to distinguish information from disinformation?" the President of Latvia together with young people and guests of the event will seek to find answers to important questions. How do stereotypes and prejudices about Latvia, the Latvian language, and the country's successes and failures affect our views and actions in different situations? What is the purpose of disinformation and manipulative content about Latvia? What should a media literate Latvian do when confronted with disinformation?
Discussion will be live streamed on LSM.lv, www.president.lv, the official webpage of the Presidential Chancery, as well as President Levits’ social media accounts from 11.00 a.m.
The President of Latvia will be joined by Madara Šņickovska from Riga Secondary School No. 84, Ella Hermansone from Riga French Lyceum, Edgars Eduards Viļums from Riga Centre Humanitarian Secondary School, Ksenija Zlotina from Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Leandra Spriesle from Latvian Academy of Culture and Jānis Valdmanis from Riga Art and Media Technical College. The discussion will be moderated by strategic communication expert Elīna Lange-Ionatamishvili.
The discussion "The image of my Latvia. How to distinguish information from disinformation?" is organised by Presidential Chancery in cooperation with the global development and education organisation "IREX" and the Latvian Safer Internet Centre.
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