DISINFO: The high school media literacy course in Moldova aims to remove all Russian information from the information space of the country
SUMMARY
The problem is that there are too many similar initiatives in our country that […] have only one goal: to suppress all the information coming from Russia from the information field and replace it with their own, to make people consume only one information product and build their understanding of the world only in accordance with it.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narratives claiming that in many states, including countries of the former Soviet Union, Russian media are restricted and discriminated against, which is a violation of freedom of speech, and that every initiative to promote media pluralism or media literacy is directed against Russian media. Similar cases can be seen here. The curriculum for Media Education (optional subject for upper secondary education, grades X-XI), approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of Moldova on 20 August 2019, was developed by the Independent Center of Journalism with the support of Internews. This school subject exists in many European countries, such as Germany, Sweden, France etc., according to EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of EU). The media education course referred to aims to teach students about the role and power of the media in a democratic society, to ”decode” media messages, to analyse media content critically, to be aware of the dangers online by adopting responsible behavior and to become responsible media creators, as is mentioned in the Curriculum for VII-VIII degree, adopted in 2018 by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova. The media literacy course as an optional subject has been taught in the Republic of Moldova since 2017 (primary and lower secondary school).