The National Information Defense and Propaganda Combating Center PATRIOT must be a powerful institution that will contribute to countering disinformation and propaganda in Moldova, said the executive director of the Association of Independent Press Petru Pacovei. According to him, the entity that will be created on the initiative of President Maia Sandu should help the public institutions to become more resilient to information attacks, IPN reports.
On Monday, President Maia Sandu presented a legislative proposal to create the National Information Defense and Propaganda Combating Center PATRIOT whose duty will be to coordinate the state policy on information security and to fight disinformation at national level.
“This is a late initiative. The necessity of creating in the Republic of Moldova a specialized entity for hybrid threat analyses, especially as regards the security of the information space, has been discussed for a long period of time. A year and a half of the outbreak of the Russian Federation’s aggressive war against Ukraine has passed and this war has been accompanied by an unprecedented disinformation campaign that affects the Republic of Moldova too. European experts ascertained that the Republic of Moldova is the second country after Ukraine, which has been most affected by the pro-Kremlin’s disinformation, which is aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country. I hope this initiative will be implemented and we will not have only one more public institution. We have enough such institutions. I hope we will have an institution that will efficiently fight disinformation. The big problem in our country is that we have immunity to disinformation,” Petru Macovei stated in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
He also said that the new entity should be offered sufficient instruments for fighting fake news so that it contributes to increasing the state’s capacity to cope with information attacks.
“The powers of this center are the most important aspect as we need to sees how efficient it can be in the fight against disinformation. I would not like this center to have powers of ascertaining agent as this is the duty of the judicial system. This should be a powerful institution and should be offered by law powers to fight disinformation. I want this center to really contribute to increasing the resilience of public institutions so that these public institutions help the citizens of the Republic of Moldova to be more resilient against disinformation,” said the executive director of the Association of Independent Press.
President Maia Sandu said that such a center is necessary as the Kremlin and the criminal groups launch hybrid attacks, using the weapon of propaganda, to disseminate hatred in the Republic of Moldova.
