The 2018 Media Literacy index of the Open Society Institute in Sofia says Balkan countries are the most susceptible in Europe to 'fake' news – owing to their highly controlled media, low educational levels and low levels of trust in society.

For a second consecutive year, the index assess the potential to resilience of 35 European societies to disinformation by employing media freedom, education and interpersonal trust indicators, said OSI–Sofia’s European Policies program director, Marin Lessenski.

According to the 2018 index, Nordic countries are best equipped to resist fake news, mainly because of their high educational and media freedom scores.

The index puts all Balkan states in the bottom half of the media literacy scale, with Greece and Romania being the “top” performers in 27th and 28th places, followed by Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Turkey and Macedonia.

The index sees a slow improvement in the majority of Balkan states since 2017; however, Bulgaria and Romania are stagnating and Serbia, Montenegro and Romania are falling behind.

While the report outlines various regulation and self-regulation proposals to tackle fake news, it says supporting media freedom is the best way forward.

Source: LINK

Download: The Media Literacy index (2018)