site.btaTech Park Talks' Fourth Edition to Focus on Fake News, Online Misinformation

Fake news and online misinformation are the focus of the fourth edition of the Tech Park Talks forum, which will be held on October 31 in Sofia Tech Park, the organizers said on Wednesday.

Speakers at the event Tech Park Talks - The Guardians: Science and Technology Protecting The Truth will be leading Bulgarian cybersecurity, information and communication technology specialists, journalists and media experts.

Those will include: George Sharkov - Sofia Tech Park's Cyber Security Lab Head, Assoc. Prof. at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' Institute for ICT, CEO of the European Software Institute (ESI) and Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) Board Member; Antoaneta Nikolova - communications expert and journalist with extensive experience in international and European affairs, media law and online regulations; Nikolay Nikolov - a multimedia journalist and filmmaker exploring new frontiers of visual storytelling at The Times; Dobroslav Dimitrov - BASSCOM Board Chair and Bulgarian Employers Association Innovative Technologies (BRAIT) Chair; Krasimir Kotsev - cybersecurity specialist, founder and CEO of one of Bulgaria's leading cybersecurity companies SoCyber; Vladislav Venev - Director of Information and Communication Technology Security at bTV Media Group, information and cybersecurity expert with over 20 years of experience; Polya Alexandrova - journalist and PR manager, Head of Corporate Communications at Philip Morris Bulgaria.

The event will be hosted by journalist Svetoslav Ivanov.

In the high-tech era, it is extremely important for the public to be familiar with methods for identifying fake news, with techniques for identifying manipulative texts and visual materials, as well as with the most effective technological and other tools for countering disinformation, the organizers noted. The aim of the new edition of Tech Park Talks will be to put the topic on the agenda so it can be discussed systematically and consistently at an expert level. This way, the public's trust in traditional and new media will be preserved and citizens will receive credible, reliable and truthful information without the risk of being misled and manipulated, the organizers added. 

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is among the media partners of the event. 

The initiative is part of Sofia Tech Park's participation in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) under an InnoForward project, co-funded by the European Commission.