Lie Detectors wins EU Digital Skills Award
Lie Detectors, a journalist-led news-literacy programme for school children, has won a prestigious award for tackling disinformation and media bias in classrooms in Europe.
The Brussels-headquartered non-profit group was presented the 2018 EU Digital Skills award in the education category by European Digital Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and the jury at ICT2018, an annual conference of the European tech industry.
“We’re delighted to see our work recognised at this critical time. The lines between fact and fiction online are blurring from day to day, causing a crisis not just for young people but also for Europe itself,” said Lie Detectors founder and CEO Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck.
“Thank you to the excellent professional journalists going into classrooms tirelessly, from Molenbeek in Brussels to Saxony in Germany. This project rests on the talents of journalists, on the open doors provided by teachers, and on the remarkable engagement and curiosity of schoolchildren.”
Lie Detectors selects and trains professional journalists from accredited news organisations and journalism schools with a script developed by teachers, children, pedagogues and psychologists, deploying them into classrooms for short interactive sessions with children aged 10-11 and 14-15.
Classroom sessions address the forces driving online disinformation, identify verification tools available to citizens and sensitise school children to how professional media works.
“Our mission is not only to empower young people to spot a lie and tackle online disinformation, but also to foster understanding of how professional journalism works and why facts matter. We have started to engage a remarkable community of journalists and teachers in the process. News and media literacy should and can become a core, basic literacy – just like reading, writing and counting - of school children across Europe and beyond,” von Reppert-Bismarck said.
Lie Detectors is currently active in Belgium and Germany and designed to grow across Europe.
The annual Digital Skills Awards, now in their third year, aim to highlight projects that bring digital skills to different target groups. Thursday’s awards were presented within the categories of Digital Skills for All Citizens, Digital Skills for the Labour Force, Digital Skills for ICT Professionals, Digital Skills for Education and Digital Skills for Women and Girls. The education category received a record number of submissions, with more than 100 projects applying, according to the European Commission.
For more information or to request an interview, please visit www.lie-detectors.org or contact info@liedetectors.org.
