LIMASSOL /Cyprus/, October 22. /TASS/. Mass media bear special responsibility for success in the struggle against the proliferation of extremist ideologies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a message to the 15th international conference on the role of mass media in resistance to terrorism, which opened in Limassol on Tuesday.
"Media resources bear special responsibility for preventing the proliferation of extremist ideologies, calls for hatred and violence, and fake news, which undermine the stability and information security of countries," the message reads.
Lavrov said the terrorist threat is "a cross-border one and acquires ever new forms and continues to evolutionize."
"It will be possible to effectively struggle against this global evil only by means of pooling efforts by the entire international community on the firm basis of international law. Mass media are called to make their own contribution," Lavrov said.
In his message the foreign minister expressed certainly that the implementation of the conference’s tight agenda would allow for issuing relevant practical recommendations.
A warm message of greetings to the conference was sent by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades. He thanked the organizer of the conference — the International Academy of Television and Radio — for choosing Cyprus as the venue of this forum once again.
This year the conference is focused on ways of retaining credibility with the audience in an era of fake news, on IT security amid cyberterrorism, on the mobilization of bloggers for struggle against hate propaganda and on cooperation by mass media and security services to combat terrorism, and more. Also, the conference is considering measures to resist the conversion of social networks into a favorable environment for the propagation of terrorist ideas and to find ways of collaboration by journalists to resist nationalism and nationalism-fueled violence.