With the next European Parliament elections approaching and four countries lowering the voting age to 16, the opportunities and challenges of increasing youth participation in the European democratic process are coming under the spotlight. With a focus on media literacy, the Lisbon Council convened an expert panel on how to fight disinformation by empowering young people and protecting democratic values.
The panel brought together distinguished experts, including Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, executive director and founder of LieDetectors, an award-winning media literacy organisation and Gianmarco Guazzo, senior expert and community manager at the “At School of OpenCohesion” project, supported by the department for cohesion policy, government of Italy. Christina Yiannapi, member of the advisory council on youth of the Council of Europe and secretary general of the Cyprus Youth Council, joined the discussion and brought to the table the youngsters’ insights on the potential of tackling disinformation through education.