State Secretary Vojko Volk: Disinformation is attacking our values
Vojko Volk, State Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office. | Author STA
Defending our values is our primary interest, while the goal of Russian and Chinese disinformation is to further their interests. »This is the key difference between democracy and authoritarianism,« said Volk. He pointed out how difficult it is to determine what is information and what is disinformation, describing the latter as the sister of propaganda. »Machiavelli already explained what propaganda is, arguing that effects matter more than the facts. This was true 500 years ago and is still true today,« said Volk.
State Secretary Volk recalled that two years ago Slovenia apprehended two Russian spies, which taught the Slovenian public two things: first, that Russian spies exist, and second, that spies come not only to steal information but also to spread disinformation.
Rusjan: The truth must not be determined by algorithms
At the beginning of the conference, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Marko Rusjan, recalled that this year Slovenia adopted new media legislation after 20 years, the purpose of which is to strengthen ethical journalism. He added that the right to expression without truth is meaningless. »In this time of artificial intelligence and global platforms, we must insist that truth is not determined by algorithms,« he emphasised, adding that disinformation might be global, but its impact is always local.
More than 600 conference participants
The #Disinfo2025 conference, organised by the non-governmental organisation EU DisinfoLab from Brussels, is one of the Europe’s leading conferences in the fight against disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference. This year, it is being held in Slovenia for the first time, namely in Ljubljana from 15 to 16 October, bringing together more than 600 participants, mostly from abroad.
Diana Wallis pictured between Marko Rusjan and Vojko Volk. | Author STA
Diana Wallis, Board Member of EU DisinfoLab, said that this year's conference is the largest to date. Due to great interest, they had expanded the programme so that it is twice as extensive as last year. In the world where human imagination is prepared to believe even the craziest stories, it should not be a stretch to believe that by working together we can strengthen our resistance to protect democracy. We can also fight against disinformation with a bit of humour.
In Ljubljana, experts from non-governmental organisations, academic circles, journalism, government institutions and the European Union will discuss how to identify and prevent interference in the information space and protect democratic values and how foreign factors influence elections. The key topics of the conference are foreign interference in elections and the EU's Digital Services Act.
The conference is supported by the Government Communication Office and the Ministry of Culture.