Over 90 percent of fake news in Ukraine has a Russian source, says Natalia Kostina of the Ukrainian News Agency UKRINFORM. According to her, the Ukrainian people and the journalists themselves are paying the high price of freedom of expression and independence. At the international conference "Freedom of Speech Borders", hosted by KosovaPress News Agency, she also spoke about how to prevent misinformation and disinformation.

During the first panel on the topic "What are the challenges for the News Agencies in the recent period?", the head of the Department for Foreign Relations at the Ukrainian News Agency Ukrinform, stated that Ukraine is paying a high price for freedom of speech but also independence.

"Ukraine gained its independence 30 years ago and I have a friend of mine who is in the Balkans here and I know that we discussed the way independence was gained. Unfortunately, we are suffering these consequences, we are paying the high price for this when it comes to the part of freedom of speech. Thousands of journalists have been killed and freedom of expression is the foundation for any democratic society. Today's conference is also very important for me, maybe we can be the only countries that have won things with sweat and blood and we also speak the same language. It doesn't matter whether we speak Albanian, Croatian, or Ukrainian, each one of us understands how the situation was in their respective countries", she said.

While talking about the fight against disinformation in the country where she comes from, she said that over 90 percent of fake news has a Russian source.

"More than 90 percent of fake news, which, if it has been published about Ukraine, is from Russian sources. And compared to this part of massive Russian disinformation, we have a very small amount of misinformation and fake news inside Ukraine. The first level is fact-checking, and based on the established standards, we also have NGOs that are members of the international fact-checking network, then we also have the European level. Also, another level is analyzing the stories and narratives that are being told to see if there really is fake news", she said.

In the conference hosted by KosovaPress, the members of the largest European network of news agencies EANA (www.newsalliance.org) as well as that of South-East Europe ABNA SEE (www.abnase.com), networks where KosovaPress is a member, are present at this event.

Especially for this conference, Nataliya Kostina, head of the Department for Foreign Relations at the Ukrainian News Agency ‘Ukrinform’, also comes from Kyiv.

The conference will have two panels, where journalists will have the opportunity to ask questions during the two panels and during the conference.

The first panel will focus on the contemporary challenges facing news agencies and the media in this period of great global change.

This panel is being moderated by Branka Gabriela Vojvodic from the Croatian News Agency HINA and consists of: Alan Marshall from the United Kingdom’s PA Media Group, Camille Bouissou from the French News Agency AFP, Natalia Kostina from the Ukrainian News Agency UKRINFORM, Aimilios Perdiakris from the Greek News Agency ANA-MPA.

In the second panel, the speakers will be the president of the Prishtina MALL Board, Fatmir Zymeri, the leader of the UBT College Edmond Hajrizi, university professor Besa Luzha, Kushtrim Krasniqi from the Kosovo Olympic Committee, and Tualant Hodaj from the Kosovo Football Federation, who will present views about the possibility of creating synergies to support innovative initiatives that advance social prosperity. /Sh. Pajaziti