ZAGREB, 18 March (2022) - Croatia will develop a fact checker network as part of its efforts to curb fake news in the media space, and this project, worth 45 million euros (€6 million), will be financed with EU funds as part of Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).

"We have noticed that there is a need for such an investment for several reasons. We have been flooded with disinformation over the past two years, marked by the coronavirus pandemic, the (2020) quakes and unfortunately the recent launch of the aggression against Ukraine. It is difficult to distinguish between true information and disinformation, which can be really dangerous nowadays," the Croatian culture and media ministry's State Secretary, Krešimir Partl, told Hina.

The idea about building a fact checking network is a result of cooperation with the media sector, including journalists and publishers, he said.

It is also in accordance with the recommendations made by the European Commission to fight fake news, he added.

There are several targets of this EU funded project, such as the reduction of disinformation to the lowest possible level and the encouragement of professional journalism, Partl said.

Two weeks ago we had meeting with the European Commission, and they told us that there were a few more countries that had launched projects of establishing networks for checking media facts, Partl said.

The whole investment will be implemented the Electronic Media Agency, as an independent media regulator.

At the first stage, standards and criteria for the fact-checking system will be elaborated.

The agency's head, Josip Popovac, has said that this "is a challenging project", to be developed based on the best international practices.

"Fact checking is at the core of journalism," Popovac underscored.

For more, check out our politics section.