Czechs set up unit to counter perceived propaganda threat from Russia
PRAGUE - The Czech interior ministry has set up a unit to counter what it sees as propaganda from Russia and elsewhere that has been affecting public opinion in the European Union and NATO member nation, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said on Thursday.
The counterintelligence service said in September that Russia was conducting "an information war" in the Czech Republic, building a network of puppet groups and propaganda agents that could be used to destabilise the country.
Chovanec said the ministry's new 20-member team will act to disperse misinformation in the public domain but also train public officials to be prepared to deal with disinformation.
"We want to get into every smartphone," Chovanec said at a conference on strategic communications which he attended alongside general Petr Pavel, head of NATO's military committee.
