About BROD
Big Data for Smart Society Institute - GATE
The Big Data for Smart Society Institute (GATE) is the first Centre of Excellence in Bulgaria to work on integrating and extending scientific excellence and innovation in priority areas such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence at regional and European level. The Institute aims to attract, inspire and cultivate the next generation Early-Stage Researchers who, under the guidance of leading scientists, will work with enthusiasm and curiosity in the field of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. GATE was established in 2019 as a structure of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. In 2021 it launched its Disinformation Research Group within its Intelligent Government team which is contributing to BROD.
Center for Independent Journalism
The Center for Independent Journalism is a non-governmental organization active for over 25 years in protecting democracy and those who believe in its values.
People, governments, practices and threats have changed over the time. CJI remains a promoter of universal values and a partner of those who want to contribute to the consolidation of a free and diverse society.
Center for the Study of Democracy
Founded in late 1989, the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) is a public policy institute fostering the reform process in Europe through impact on policy and civil society.
AFP
AFP is a leading global news agency, providing 24/7 fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of world news across all fields. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world in six languages, with a unique quality of multimedia storytelling spanning video, text, photos and graphics. Since 2017, AFP has built up the world's largest digital investigation network, with almost 130 journalists covering 85 countries to date. These specialised journalists are a reference in the fight against disinformation and publish in 26 languages on the factcheck.afp.com website.
FUNKY CITIZENS
FUNKY CITIZENS is a Romanian NGO founded in 2012, promoting human rights, sustainable development, institutional accountability, transparency, and active citizenship. Versed in data-based advocacy, communication and civic education, the organization works on various educational and advocacy projects, building on its expertise in public budgets, public administration,and the justice system. Funky Citizens is part of several international coalitions such as the International Budget Partnership and TransparenCEE. Since 2014, it also manages Factual, the only political fact-checking platform in Romania. Responding to an ever growing interest in local politics, spendings and insights, in 2019 the NGO launched Buletin.de/bucuresti - a local data journalism project for the citizens of the capital city, Bucharest.
BNT
Bulgarian National Television (BNT) is the public audiovisual service provider of the Republic of Bulgaria. It was founded in 1959.
As a public service broadcaster, its mission is to provide fair information, uphold the principles of pluralism and educate its audience. BNT does this successfully through its four television channels, two websites and various social media channels.
At the end of 2022, BNT joined the Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media (BROD) and set up its own fact-checking team as part of its efforts to combat disinformation.
GLOBSEC
GLOBSEC is an independent, non-partisan, global think-tank based in Bratislava committed to enhancing security, prosperity and sustainability in Europe and throughout the world. It has offices in Kyiv, Warsaw, Brussels and Washington, D.C., bridging the western and eastern flanks of the transatlantic alliance.
The institute is conducting world-class research on and offers political insight into the most pressing issues of our times. GLOBSEC has published analyses on the proliferation of disinformation, the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and public opinion on key political questions, among others.
GLOBSEC’s mission is to influence the future by generating new ideas and solutions for a better and safer world by putting together the right stakeholders at the right time for a free exchange of ideas. GLOBSEC convenes two annual keystone events, the GLOBSEC Forum and Tatra Summit, which serve as key platforms for world-class thinkers, business leaders and heads of states and governments to discuss pressing challenges to security and prosperity.
NTCenter
NTCenter is an educational research and innovation company, assisting educational institutions' transition to blended and online training offerings, migration to learning management systems, designing and pilot testing of training and assessment methodologies. Its focus is on the design and development of specific tools and kits informed by scientific developments as solutions to emerging social and technological issues in educational context. NTCenter has a substantial track record in research on disinformation, conspiracy theories and cognitive bias detection.
Ontotext
ONTOTEXT is a global leader in enterprise knowledge graph technology and semantic database engines. As a member of W3C, EDMC, STI and LDBC, we support the development of the next generation technology trends and standards. Our technology and solutions are spread wide across the value chain of the most knowledge intensive enterprises in Financial Services, Publishing, Healthcare, Pharma, Industry and Public sectors.
ATC
Founded in 1987, Athens Technology Center (ATC) is an Information Technology Company offering solutions and services targeting specific sectors, including the Media, as well as horizontal solutions focusing on Content Management, Web Applications etc. Particularly in the recent years, ATC has acknowledged misinformation as a major issue (for the media industry and the society as a whole) and has focussed on developing tools to combat disinformation. ATC is one of the members of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), providing the technological support and infrastructure and access to specialized fact-checking tools for the detection and analysis of misinformation.
SNSPA
SNSPA (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration) is one of Romania's foremost social science universities. SNSPA has more than 40 international partnerships with other higher education institutions, as well as other strategic partners, such as the World Bank, UNESCO, Global Stat, the International Association of Universities, etc. It has been involved in more than 20 international research grants and has solid experience in coordinating and implementing EU Funded projects, both research and strategic grants.
XWiki SAS
With thousands of organisations using our software, XWiki is the leader of professional and collaborative Open Source solutions worldwide. XWiki SAS (France) and XWiki Software SRL (Romania) bring together 50 highly skilled professionals who develop the XWiki software, provide customisations for enterprise customers, and also engage in innovative research projects. XWiki has participated in the STAMP H2020 project, and multiple H2020 projects (RISCOSS, LearnPad, STAMP, FASTEN).
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) brings together fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and academic researchers to understand and analyse disinformation, in collaboration with media organisations, online platforms and media literacy practitioners.
EDMO will deploy a platform to support the work of a multidisciplinary community with expertise in the field of online disinformation. EDMO will contribute to a deeper understanding of disinformation relevant actors, vectors, tools, methods, dissemination dynamics, targets, and impact on society.
The Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media aims at creating a multinational, multi-stakeholder, and multidisciplinary regional hub for detection, analysis and combating disinformation circulating in Bulgaria and Romania. Such an observatory is urgently needed and very relevant in the region, which due to the poor media freedom and low citizen media and information literacy is highly prone to coordinated internal and external disinformation campaigns aiming at the EU.
BROD brings together some of the most renowned researchers, media literacy providers, journalists, and policy partners active in the region, and the biggest fact-checker worldwide, AFP with its fact-checking operations in Bulgaria and Romania. BROD aims to be a regional hub building on knowledge and research excellence in digital media and accelerating the efforts to fight disinformation through national and regional fact-checking, media literacy, and policy measures, addressing short and long-term challenges in this key EU region.
Jenny Sköld
Jenny Sköld is a social entrepreneur and a journalist with extensive experience in some of the largest newsrooms in Sweden. Since 2015 she has worked in Google.org funded projects to roll out Mobile Stories, an innovative pedagogical tool that empowers young people to become responsible and informed producers, consumers, and distributors of digital media. She is also co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Association Voice4You, educating teachers and students in hard-to-reach areas in media and information literacy. Together with the Swedish Media Ombudsman, she and her colleague Lotta Bergseth have created a Code of Ethics for students working with journalistic tools and methods in school, based on the Swedish Media Code of Ethics. Jenny’s and Lotta’s work with Mobile Stories has been described in the governmental report Democratic Dialogue in a Digital Age and in the publication Understanding Media Literacy (MIL) in the Digital Age – A Question of Democracy edited by Ulla Carlsson, professor and UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Expression, Media Development and Global Policy.
Irina Nedeva
Irina Nedeva is a Bulgarian journalist, documentary filmmaker and a president of Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria with extensive experience in public broadcast journalism (public Radio and public TV). Irina is a senior editor/producer of the nation-wide daily morning radio program “Horizont” on current, political, social and cultural events. She is also active in the field of producing and coordinating independent film, television and radio projects. Her latest project is the broadcast and podcast series “Voices from Ukraine”. Irina chairs the Board of the Association of European Journalists-Bulgaria from 2018 to 2022 she has been appointed Member of the Board of AEJ (International) on the issues of disinformation. Irina was a Milena Jesenská Fellow in 2010 in Vienna (IWM) and a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA in 2011-2012 in the frame of the Fulbright program for Academic Exchange. She has done internships with the German Marshall Fund for the USA. Among her professional achievements is the nomination for Prix Europa, Berlin 2014 “Radio Current Affairs” competition with a documentary radio feature “Extreme Rights in Europe and Migration”
Codruța Simina
Codruța Simina is a well-known journalist, writing for Rise Project, one of the most important investigative outlets in Romania, and has co-created Misreport, an informative weekly publication about disinformation in the Romanian public space. She is a practitioner of civic journalism, where relevant information comes from continuous analysis of local or national government performance. After documenting and identifying a series of websites whose mission was disinformation, Codruța has become a reporter of inaccuracies in correct and relevant information in our society.
Rumena Filipova
Dr. Rumena Filipova is chair of the Institute for Global Analytics in Bulgaria. Her main research interests focus on the politics and international relations of Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular reference to questions of media and disinformation, identity and the authoritarian influence exercised by Russia and China in the region. Rumena Filipova holds a DPhil and MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, a BA in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Cambridge and has gained extensive experience in the think tank sector. Her newest book is Constructing the Limits of Europe: Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989.
Most recent reports
- History Undone. Russia’s Historical Disinformation, Bulgaria’s Memory Politics and Lessons for Dealing with the Past from Central and Eastern Europe
- Effective Strategic Communications for Resilient State and Society. A Conceptual and Institutional Blueprint
- Teetering on the Brink of Regional Convergence. Bulgarians’ Stances on Russia’s War against Ukraine, Strategic Orientation, Democracy, Media and Values vis-à-vis Central and Eastern Europe
- Authoritarians on a Media Offensive in the Midst of War. The Informational Influence of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and the Gulf States in Southeast Europe.
Nicoleta Fotiade
Nicoleta Fotiade is a Communications expert and trainer in media and digital education. For the past 20 years, she has been managing media education grassroots programs for civil society organizations in Romania and Europe. She has taught media education to Pedagogy students at the University of Bucharest and trains teachers and librarians to include media education in their communities. She believes that media literacy is a life skill and that media education should be taught to enable children and young people to have a critical understanding of how media works and its impact on their lives. She also has experience in media research and election assessment as a media analyst. She has (co)authored several media research studies and media education resources, including two high school textbooks. She is President of Mediawise Society, a Romanian grassroots NGO specialized in media literacy education actions and co-founder and President of the International Association for Media Education.
