Fake news & disinformation vs political dissent in the EU: The cases of Poland, Hungary and Spain

In the framework of the #CatalanWeek2021 and the Conferences on the Future of Europe, the International Committee of Assemblea is organizing a conference on fake news, with Raphael Tsavkko, PhD in human rights & independent international journalist based in Belgium; and Miquel Strubell, sociolinguist and political activist.

And here’s a rough draft of what I said during my opening remarks:

Thanks to the Asemblea Nacional Catalana for the invitation. This is a very interesting and relevant topic, as what we are witnessing in Catalonia is a sample of the growing process of authoritarianism and police state that has been going on in Poland and Hungary for some years now. Not that the situation in the Basque Country for years in a role wasn’t quite similar — newspapers closed, political parties banned, political leaders sent to jail — or that Catalonia’s situation is not dire enough, but there’s still a lot Spain can do to become the new Poland or the new Hungary