Slovakia will repurpose hoax-fighting money into roof repairs

Projects meant to fight disinformation and strengthen media education will be left unfunded as Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová decided to repurpose EU funding worth €300,000 to repair the roof of the Slovak Philharmonic and support libraries.

With the deadline to implement the projects initially targeted by the EU funds set to expire by the end of the year, the minister decided to repurpose the funds, citing a lack of time.

“The Ministry of Culture looked for other ways to use these funds efficiently and proceeded to change the purpose of drawing these resources. This change will benefit the Slovak Philharmonic and the University Library in Bratislava,” Šimkovičová said.

However, as Denník N reports, the evaluating committee finalised their project recommendations on 24 October, considering the short implementation period.

Disinformation is a major problem in Slovakia, as Slovaks are among the EU’s most prone to believe in conspiracy theories.

Even the minister herself has long been a well-known disseminator of disinformation in Slovakia. In her videos, she warns of the ‘threat of chemtrails’, and a month before the elections, she published a hoax claiming the EU wanted to ban toilet paper and replace it with straw.

When asked if her ministry still wants to keep fighting the disinformation, Šimkovičová replied: “Yes, we definitely want to continue. But in a slightly different spectrum than what has been set up so far.”

The calls for which the EU funding was initially destined focused on media education through webinars, publications and research, among other things.

Among them was a project by Daniel Otek of the Theatre Centre in the city of Martin, which aimed to educate high school students about totalitarian regimes and hoaxes on social media. Otko believes the ministry’s actions were unprofessional.

“I wish that people who have been working on fighting disinformation and helping with media education will now be even more committed to persevere and do things the best they can,” he said.

(Natália Silenská, Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)