Dialogue expands Horizons
The DIACOMET project will promote ethical and responsible communication.
Citizens’ freedom of speech and democratic rights are being undermined by the spread of massive disinformation campaigns and dysfunctional communication, including hate speech and online harassment, and a new type of code of accountable communication ethics is needed. The DIACOMET partners will develop an inclusive Civic Code of Good Communication Conduct that will help both citizens as well as media, social media, advertisers, politicians and educators to create a more dialogical and inclusive communication and societies.
“All those participating in the digital environment should understand and demonstrate not only freedom of speech but also responsibility and accountability. We hope the DIACOMET project will promote ethical and responsible communication, aiming to strengthen citizens’ resilience to disinformation and civic accountability,” prof. Kristina Juraitė, project coordinator and head of Department of Public Communications at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), stated.
Project coordinator within University of Ljubljana (UL) prof. dr. Marko Milosavljević said at the launch of the project: “Currently, the European Commission clearly recognizes a number of problems in European societies, which in many places have led to the division and polarization of society. Communication plays a big role in this, both in the media and on social networks, in politics, at the level of advertising, as well as in interpersonal relationships. We will try to harmonize all these dimensions and pour them into a new European code for communication, which will be able to help all the aforementioned actors, and with which we will try to solve the gaps or chasms between different parts of European societies with the help of a dialogic approach.”
Project Advisory Board members include president of the Ethical Journalism Network and former General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Aidan White, who says he is delighted to join the board of this “marvellous project” put together by partners “committed to improving civic communications”.
The DIACOMET consortium will also create an interactive “dilemma game”, a forum for learning and discussion and propose to establish a European network of civic accountability bodies for supporting individuals, groups and organizations and providing recommendations for decision-makers.