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18 november 2019 # Council of Europe

Group of USPS 14th programme at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg

USPS group participated in the World Forum for Democracy, which took place in Strasbourg on November 6-8. "Is democracy under threat in the information age?” is this year's topic of discussions. Global experts in journalism and communications spoke about problems, suggested solutions, and shared their experience.

The digitalised world of post-truth is drowning in an ocean of misinformation and fakes. In this time, you need to learn how to resist threats, separate “black” and “white”, listen, and even more – hear.

Now every country is fighting on its “information front”. Ukraine has experienced a particularly harmful impact of propaganda and manipulation. Many participants of the Forum knew nothing about Russian aggression, the war, and occupation. Therefore, Ukrainian delegation of USPS could not remain silent about that. We have organised several actions to draw attention of the international community to problems that concern not only Ukraine.

USPS group conducted an action #NotAToySoldier, in order to remind Europe and the world about threats from the Russian Federation. Ukraine is paying too much, and any country could become a victim! Soldiers in Ukraine are not toy soldiers, and the fight against them continues on our territories for more than five years. And even more of such “soldiers” are fighting against Ukraine on the global information field, in diplomatic circles, and in the economic sector. It is very difficult for our country to oppose them on our own.

The world must unite against common threats – this was the message of the entire Forum and the actions of USPS group in particular.

We also had an opportunity to remind the world about attacks on activists, the number of which is growing every year, when the number of found murderers and their customers is decreasing. This includes the still unsolved case of Katia Handziuk, our alumna, and 55 attacks on Ukrainian civic activists that are included into the “Handziuk list”.

There has been a lot of talk in the Council of Europe these days that only by joining forces can the world survive the crisis of democracy. But first, the world must know and be aware of the problems.

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