Citizens’ freedom of speech and democratic rights are being undermined by the spread of massive disinformation campaigns and dysfunctional communication, including hate speech and online harassment, and a new type of code of accountable communication ethics is needed. The DIACOMET partners will develop an inclusive Civic Code of Good Communication Conduct that will help both citizens as well as media, social media, advertisers, politicians and educators to create a more dialogical and inclusive communication and societies.
“All those participating in the digital environment should understand and demonstrate not only freedom of speech but also responsibility and accountability. We hope the DIACOMET project will promote ethical and responsible communication, aiming to strengthen citizens’ resilience to disinformation and civic accountability,” Prof. Kristina Juraitė, project coordinator and head of Department of Public Communications at VMU, stated.
Project advisory board members include president of the Ethical Journalism Network and former general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) AidanWhite, who says he is delighted to join the board of this “marvelous project” put together by partners “committed to improving civic communications”.
The project will run for three years. Coordinator VMU is joined by nine other project partners: Besides CMC, further partners include the University of Tartu (Estonia), the University of Tampere (Finland), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), UAB Delfi (Lithuania), the Hungarian European Society (Hungary), the Center for Policy Studies “Praxis” (Estonia) and associated partner University of Italian Switzerland (Switzerland).
The DIACOMET project is part of the Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society. The project consortium received a budget of 2.998.012,50 Euro to promote citizens’ resilience and accountability and support ethical communication until the end of May 2026.
The consortium will also create an interactive “dilemma game”, a forum for learning and discussion and propose to establish a European network of civic accountability bodies for supporting individuals, groups and organizations and providing recommendations for decision-makers.
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