The COVID-19 outbreak caused a global public health crisis, but unfortunately, its impacts go far beyond the health dimension. Since the beginning of the crisis, disinformation actors have played a key role in spreading disinformation and hoaxes.
The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by unprecedented state interventions – from restrictions on basic individual freedoms to significant increases in public spending, among others, to compensate companies for the effects of the shutdown.
As the world remembers the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, conspiracy theories about what “really” happened are resurfacing and continue to roam the Internet twenty years after the event, although most have been disproven and none confirmed by experts.
“More free market or more government? How to strengthen post-pandemic recovery?”. It was the title of a panel hosted by the FOR during the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland, the largest conference of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. The panel was supported by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Agata Stremecka, President of FOR, moderated the discussion.
At the end of May, the IME wrote that it was high time for a ramp-up of vaccine efforts in Bulgaria. By this, we meant that the vaccination process should be made the first and foremost governmental priority, and that as many tools as possible should be sought and employed to speed up the pace.
The reason was obvious. The country was substantially far behind achieving the set target – vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of August.
Lockdowns and other restrictive measures to keep people in their homes and prevent socializing with others were introduced. But what if home is not a safe place? What if being locked down with a member of your family or a partner is the very definition of being unsafe and at risk of physical injury or psychological abuse?
On August 10, the Slovak cabinet approved a series of changes to the COVID automat – an emotionally charged topic that had led to several anti-government protests in recent weeks. The new changes are due to come into force on August 16. They come after the last set of restrictions regarding the border regime was suspended by the Slovak Constitutional Court, giving the people who only got the 1st dose of vaccine the same rights as those who are unvaccinated.
After many years, the last year’s organization of the traditional international conference Free Market Roadshow, which has been organized by INESS in cooperation with AEC was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, it was brought back – into the online space – and dedicated to the topic which has been perhaps the most pertinent for the last year and for many years to come: Pandemic Lessons.
Since the 2015 refugee crisis onwards, the yearly quota of working permits for Third Country Nationals (TCNs) offered by the Romanian Government has gradually increased, reaching 25,000 in 2020. An important category of TCNs working in Romania are people from South Asia, mainly Indian, Bangladeshi, Sinhalese, or Nepali migrants.
The disinformation actors also stick to their traditional topics including Covid-19 and anti-vaccination narratives. The passing of a popular Slovak presenter Julo Viršík at the age of 56 due to cardiac arrest, who was recently vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, served as a pretext for the renewed spread of anti-vax narratives by the disinformation media.
