“Work together and form alliances, as this will truly maximise your impact." Hana Kojakovic, Media Diversity Institute Global

Hana Kojakovic is Project Manager at Media Diversity Institute Global which promotes media and information literacy, combats disinformation and facilitates responsible coverage of diversity issues in local and international media.

What does the change you are trying to achieve look like? Why is the EU important?

Our goal is to promote media literacy and combat mis- and disinformation at both local and international levels. This includes countering misinformation and hate speech by working with journalists and social media companies to remove harmful content online.

We are involved in various projects at the European level working alongside civil society organisations.. We have collaborated with institutions on campaigns against hate speech and on education and media literacy initiatives, including direct work with schools.

The EU is particularly important to us in relation to the Digital Services Act (DSA), which we seek to support and ensure is implemented effectively. We actively engage with social media companies and intermediaries to hold them accountable for  complying with this legislation.

We also receive funding from the European Commission, which allows us to collaborate on events addressing hate speech, ethnicity, and gender issues. 

We work in consortium with other organisations across Europe and beyond. We have worked and run campaigns in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and — my primary focus — the EU. For example, we are developing the MinDiShield (Combating Online Minority-Related Disinformation) project together with six partners from Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece and Italy, to strengthen the resilience of ethnic minority communities against online disinformation and extremist messaging.

Which challenges are you facing?

One of our biggest challenges is dealing with the rise of populism and right-wing politics across the EU. It is becoming increasingly difficult to combat hate speech as society becomes more divided and polarisation deepens, including along religious lines.

Additionally, engaging with social media companies has become considerably more difficult since Elon Musk acquired X.

In terms of funding, an increasing proportion of budgets is being allocated to security, which is having a direct impact on civil society organisations like ours. Competition for project funding is greater, and maintaining financial stability is difficult. To maintain our visibility, we regularly meet with the European Commission and continue to submit funding applications. Ultimately, we must remain creative and keep finding new solutions to sustain our work.

What tips do you want to share with other public interest advocates?

Work together and form alliances that combine action at the institutional level, the civil society organisation level, and the grassroots level. Bringing all three together is what truly maximises impact.