Czech disinformation websites published 200,000 articles last year

Prague, Sept 20 (ČTK) - There are currently about 46 pro-Kremlin disinformation websites in the Czech Republic, which means that their number has dropped by more than one tenth compared to 2020. Nevertheless, they are becoming more active.

The analyses also show that fewer people believe they could distinguish disinformation from other media content.

Such disinformation websites, having released 197,177 articles last year, are now much more sophisticated as they have begun to focus on trying to imitate serious media, especially in the past year, representatives from Czechia in Data said. They noted that five of these websites use, for instance, number 24 in order to resemble the ČT 24 news web of the public Czech Television (ČT).

While about two thirds of Czechs were certain they could differentiate disinformation in the media space in 2018, their number now is down to only 56 percent, the fourth lowest share in the EU states. The analysis shows, however, that this has to do with comparing their ideas with the real world rather than a drop in the Czech media literacy.

The main source for Czechs is the television, about 15 percent of people in Czechia get information from websites and 5 percent of the respondents said they did not watch the news at all.

The CVVM poll showed that 56 of Czechs did not trust the news on television, mainly on private TV channels. Only 15 percent of Czechs consider them a relevant source, while half of the Czech population trust the public television, the pollsters said.