EU Parliament’s Efforts on Disinformation Featured in Day Two of Young Journalists’ Workshop

In a significant effort to bolster media literacy and European awareness, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the European Parliament’s Office in Bulgaria have launched a comprehensive training session for emerging journalists. The program, which commenced Monday and runs through October 29, features prominent speakers addressing crucial topics including disinformation campaigns and the functions of the European Parliament.

On the second day of the training, ten young journalists engaged with several high-profile experts, including MEP Kristian Vigenin, sociologist Parvan Simeonov of the Myara polling agency, media scholar Assoc. Prof. Ralitsa Kovacheva from Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications, and bTV Media Group correspondent Desislava Mincheva.

During his presentation, Socialist MEP Vigenin, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, offered insights into the European Parliament’s operations and his political group’s influence. He emphasized his commitment to making the proceedings in Strasbourg more accessible to Bulgarian citizens, highlighting the interconnection between European, national, and regional policies.

“We are lucky to live in a Union that prioritizes human rights, whether on environmental issues, personal data or food safety,” Vigenin remarked. “Perhaps we sometimes go too far with regulations, but we must protect people.”

Vigenin also discussed his current focus within the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, where he works to simplify legislation and reduce bureaucratic burdens on small and medium-sized enterprises. He expressed concern about sprawling legislative packages that simultaneously amend multiple regulations, arguing that such approaches complicate parliamentary work and blur important policy boundaries, particularly between environmental and economic considerations.

Providing a sociological perspective, Parvan Simeonov presented data on how Bulgarians and Europeans perceive and engage with EU institutions. “Politics is not about following public opinion, sometimes it goes against it, because public opinion does not always reflect the public interest,” Simeonov noted, underlining the complex relationship between public sentiment and effective governance.

Media literacy took center stage when Assoc. Prof. Ralitsa Kovacheva addressed disinformation campaigns targeting the EU. Her session included a practical component where participants verified the accuracy of political claims about the European Union. Kovacheva identified a significant challenge in Bulgarian media coverage of EU affairs: the tendency to depict the Union through impersonal imagery of buildings rather than through human stories.

“One of the most important ways for the media to reach the audience’s heart is by finding a human face or a story behind an issue,” Kovacheva explained. “People cannot be expected to engage with something that has always seemed abstract, distant and irrelevant to their lives.”

The training took a practical turn when bTV’s Desislava Mincheva conducted an exercise on communicating European stories in accessible language. She demonstrated effective techniques for journalists to adapt and transform press releases into compelling, reader-friendly content.

This training initiative comes at a critical time for Bulgaria’s media landscape, as the country continues to integrate more deeply with European institutions while facing challenges from disinformation campaigns. For Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007 and has struggled with media freedom issues, developing a corps of well-trained journalists equipped to report accurately on European affairs represents a significant investment in the country’s democratic infrastructure.

The BTA-EP partnership reflects growing recognition across Europe of the vital role journalists play in fostering informed citizenship and combating misinformation, particularly regarding EU policies and operations that directly impact citizens’ lives but often remain poorly understood.