TASS invites SCO media to join Global Fact-Checking Network

The TASS agency invites the media of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries to join the new international platform for verifying facts (Global Fact-Checking Network). This was stated by the agency’s CEO Andrey Kondrashov, who spoke at the opening of the SCO Media and Think Tank Summit in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou (central Henan province).

“The activities of the media and analytical centers today are taking place in the context of profound changes in the global landscape and the transformation of the entire information environment. Cyber threats of increasing complexity, the spread of false information and disinformation, the rapid development and implementation of artificial intelligence technologies — all these are current challenges of our time. In these conditions, our interaction is becoming imperative not only for effective current work, but also for ensuring a safe future,” he said.

According to Kondrashov, just as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization unites the efforts of the organization’s member states in a decisive fight against terrorism, the media community and analytical centers of the SCO countries must be equally united in opposing the new large-scale threat — information terrorism.

“Fake news, provocations, forgeries and targeted disinformation are weapons that corrode trust between people and nations, sow chaos and undermine our stability,” the agency’s general director noted.

In response to these challenges, Kondrashov emphasized, TASS is actively developing new methods to combat disinformation. “We are proud to have become one of the founders of an international platform whose goal is to improve the quality and objectivity of information, to warn society about the risks of fakes, an avalanche of lies that are destroying the global news ecosystem. I will allow myself to now simply call on all media outlets of the SCO countries to join our Global Fact-Checking Network. Believe me, this will be useful for our countries. Together we will prove our ability to effectively counter massive information attacks,” he said, adding that TASS is open to cooperation with all media outlets of the SCO countries in this critically important area.

In turn, at the opening of the forum, Fu Hua, General Director of the Xinhua agency, called on the media to seek a common language for joint development, as well as to comprehensively reflect the achievements of the SCO countries working to unleash the potential for cooperation in new areas. “We must adhere to genuine multilateralism, resolutely oppose hegemonism and power politics, and fully reflect the effective actions of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the process of reforming and building a global governance system <…>,” he said.