The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) General Assembly and Spring Conference was held Thursday in The Hague.
Hosted by the Dutch national news agency, ANP, the EANA General Assembly and Spring Conference, which brings together 34 European news agencies, including Anadolu, was held under the theme “The World of Disinformation: Challenges and Solutions for News Agencies.”
Speaking to Anadolu during the conference, Anadolu CEO Serdar Karagoz said: “The fight against disinformation has become the primary issue all around the world.”
Karagoz noted that when news agencies come together, they share information and experiences on techniques to combat disinformation, emphasizing that the struggle against disinformation cannot be carried out individually but should be conducted collectively within a union framework.
“As Anadolu, we also had the opportunity to explain to other news agencies our efforts carried out through the ‘Verification Line’ we established within the framework of combating disinformation,” he said.
Karagoz pointed out that disinformation and manipulative media content would become one of the most discussed issues in the coming years. “The responsibility to protect societies against this once again falls on long-established news agencies like ours,” he said.
‘Producing lies is cheap, while verifying the truth is expensive’
Svitlana Slipchenko, deputy CEO of the Ukraine-based independent analysis and verification platform Vox Ukraine, said, “The core issue is not what is fake, but the harm caused by disinformation.”
Disinformation attracts attention, weakens trust and erodes the sense of a shared reality, said Slipchenko, stressing that the damage is much broader in scope.
Noting that Europeans view fake news as one of the biggest threats to democracy, she said, “For this reason, misinformation is no longer merely a temporary problem for citizens but a democratic threat.”
Slipchenko warned that a “coordinated ecosystem” surrounding disinformation has begun to emerge, describing it as “an attack on society’s infrastructure for understanding the truth.”
She added that the main purpose of disinformation is no longer to convince people, but to “exhaust and wear them down.”
“Producing lies is cheap, while verifying the truth is expensive,” she said.
“When a society can no longer agree on basic facts, decision-making mechanisms weaken, public debates become easier to manipulate, and responses to crises slow down. Therefore, disinformation is not only a content moderation problem but also a problem of democratic governability.”
Slipchenko emphasized that Ukraine should not be viewed as a distant case, but as an early warning system for Europe and the rest of the world.
‘Artificial intelligence is developing at an incredible speed’
Niels Bouwman, founder of Verify, said one of the biggest challenges facing news agencies is adapting to an AI-driven world while continuing to provide reliable news and original visuals, and maintaining a sustainable business model.
Bouwman stressed that preserving the value of authentic and original visuals has become more important than ever.
“At the same time, artificial intelligence is developing at an incredible speed. We cannot ignore this. We need to adapt to the new situation,” he said.
Richard Carter, The Hague bureau chief of Agence France-Presse (AFP), said the news agency uses its “AFP Fact Check” system to detect disinformation and significantly reduce the visibility of false information once identified.
‘Our democratic societies and ways of life are under threat’
Saman Nazari, a researcher at the NGO Alliance4Democracy, said actors spreading disinformation are increasingly gaining ground, while democracies are under intense attack from authoritarian powers.
Nazari said the actors are well-financed and use advanced technologies and extensive methods, warning that “our democratic societies and ways of life are under threat.”
He said manipulative behavior must be identified, actors properly attributed, technical vulnerabilities detected and legal regulations strengthened.
“News agencies are also being targeted. Coordinated harassment campaigns and lawsuits aimed at silencing individual journalists are being used as tools to intimidate members of the press,” he said.
