Alliance of European wire services against fake news kicks off

(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, SEP 7 - A common platform to tell the story of the Europe of the future - that is the mission of the European Newsroom (ENR), which was inaugurated in Brussels on Tuesday evening at the offices of the Belga News Agency.
    The project, financed by the European Commission, features the involvement of 18 news agencies, including ANSA, AFP and Germany's dpa, which coordinates the initiative.
    "The war launched by Russia on Ukraine, the increase in energy prices and climate change know no borders," said European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova at the opening of the event.
    "In order to better grasp the overall picture, readers need a cross-border dimension and constant reference to the fact that European countries are not isolated, they depend on each other".
    Citing various forms of pressure on the media, which go from physical threats to economic pressure, Jourova stressed the need for instruments to ensure that no media outlet "turns into a means of propaganda".
    She announced that next week the European Commission will present the Media Freedom Act, a package of regulations to protect the freedom of the media in the EU.
    Among others present at the inauguration was European Vice President Margaritis Schinas, the Commissioner for Promoting our European Way of Life; Ambassador Francesco Maria Talò, Italy's permanent representative to NATO; ANSA CEO Stefano De Alessandri and dpa CEO Peter Kropsh.
    "A collaboration among European news agencies to share best practices, improve the quality of the news and fight disinformation: this is what the European Newsroom is," De Alessandri said at the event.
    European Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni was on the same wavelength and stressed the crucial role news agencies have in "providing objective, accurate information.
    "They are key to building a shared understanding of facts and to countering the growing problem of disinformation and outright propaganda," Gentiloni said.
    "As the saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts "Within this context, I am confident that the European Newsroom will bring the EU's activities closer to home, improve the quality of public debate and strengthen our democracies".
    The project aims to promote a spirit of cooperation among journalists from EU countries and countries that are bidding to join the union, strengthening the European information network and citizens' access to quality information in order to hold back the tide of disinformation.
    In addition to reporting, journalists from the agencies involved will also take part in training courses on issues such as fake news and fact checking, for example.
    The agencies involved in the initiative are: dpa (Germany), AFP (France), AGERPRES (Romania), ANSA (Italy), APA (Austria), ATA (Albania), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), EFE (Spain), Europa Press (Spain), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), HINA (Croatia), MIA (North Macedonia), STA (Slovenia), Tanjug (Serbia) and TASR (Slovacchia).
    In addition Pap (Poland) and Ukrinform (Ukraine) have partner news agency status.
    The ENR's multilingual site can be viewed at https://europeannewsroom.com. (ANSA).