October 21 report<\/a>, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) warned of a further narrowing of civic space and freedom of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to the organisation, independent journalists, human rights defenders and government critics face legal and administrative pressure, intimidation, threats and persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In such an environment, media and information literacy encounters a serious contradiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citizens are encouraged to compare information from different sources. Yet when independent sources are restricted, the range of information available for comparison becomes increasingly limited. Readers are urged to question what they see and hear, but when asking critical questions of the authorities can lead to pressure or persecution, who is media literacy really intended to serve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Media and information literacy is not merely about recognising manipulated photographs, misleading headlines or fraudulent messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An informed citizen must also be able to examine government statistics, request official documents and distinguish political promises from actual results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Official information should be subject to verification as well. Statements issued by government agencies, ministerial press releases and even official statistics cannot automatically substitute for evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The greatest danger is that the fight against disinformation could become a pretext for cultivating compliant journalists and an unquestioning public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If citizens are taught to trust only government sources and to treat independent reporting as inherently suspicious, this is not critical thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is effectively granting those in power the privilege of deciding for themselves what constitutes truth and what should be dismissed as falsehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the participation of state institutions in such programmes is not inherently problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education ministries can introduce fact-checking skills into school curricula, while public institutions can make more information available to citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decisive test, however, is whether teachers, students and journalists are free to question the state’s own claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The success of UNESCO’s initiative cannot be measured simply by counting workshops, presentations or group photographs from conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be assessed by whether independent media are involved in designing educational programmes, whether access to public records becomes easier and whether citizens can openly challenge official narratives without fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Media and information literacy gains genuine public value only when citizens are not merely taught to read information but are empowered to demand evidence from those who produce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when the source is a government ministry, a security agency or the president himself.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNESCO has placed the integration of media and information literacy into national policies and education systems across Central Asia, including Tajikistan, on the regional agenda. For Tajikistan, however, the challenge extends far beyond teaching people how to identify fake news. When independent journalists face pressure and restrictions, a fundamental question arises: can critical thinking education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytical-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/unesco-mil-week-2026.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3140,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions\/3140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payom.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}