UNESCO contributes to Combatting Election Disinformation in Timor-Leste

13 April 2022 - UNESCO joined the online workshop, "Combatting Election Disinformation in Timor-Leste", organized by the Timor-Leste Press Council ahead of the 19 April elections. Over 50 people participated in the event, including journalists, youth, and government agency representatives.

Representing the UNESCO Jakarta Office, Ms Hesthi Murthi, Consultant of Communication and Information Unit, spoke about the importance of partnerships in the fight against disinformation during elections. "Mis/ disinformation can affect voting decisions and compromise the quality of democracy. Strong collaboration is needed among the media, universities, and civil society organizations, as well as the support from social media platforms. Each party has its own role in combatting dis/misinformation," she said.

Ms Murthi introduced the multi-stakeholder approach for combatting disinformation using the example of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which was initiated by Poynter in 2015. Indonesia's Cekfakta network started a similar project in 2018. "Timor-Leste would also benefit from a similar initiative ahead of the general elections planned later this year," Ms Murthi highlighted.

Other speakers included the Chairwomen of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) and Meta Indonesia. The former spoke about the impact of disinformation on voting rights and the latter highlighted the company's different initiatives for detecting fake accounts and disinformation in the context of elections in Timor-Leste and the wider region.

According to We Are Social, Internet penetration in Timor-Leste has grown by over 14 times in the past decade - from 44.921 users in 2012 to 691.200 users in 2022. This growth also corresponds to the increased number of social media users - a total of 429.900 users, out of which 407.400 users are on Meta (Facebook). The number of Meta users is equivalent to 30% of Timor-Leste's population of 1,3 million. These numbers suggest the need to promote media and information literacy skills among the public to ensure their resilience against dis/misinformation.

In his concluding remarks, the Timor-Leste Press Council Executive Director Mr Rigo Monteiro emphasized the role of the media community in fighting against mis/disinformation. "Many parties spread misinformation on social media platforms and journalists sometimes disseminate these inaccurate statements as news. Although the Timor-Leste Press Council has limited resources for monitoring, it is important to join forces and strengthen the fact-checking network inside the country," he said.

The online workshop was held in cooperation with the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Regional Support for Elections and Political Transitions (Respect), Meta Indonesia. The key learnings from the workshop will inform UNESCO's future activities in Timor-Leste, including capacity-building of journalists, media and information literacy workshops, fact-checking initiatives and strengthening media self-regulation mechanisms.

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