Taiwan, US, St. Lucia stage GCTF media literacy forum in the Caribbean

2023/11/23

A forum on building democratic resilience against disinformation and misinformation was held under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework Nov. 17 in St. Lucia as part of Taiwan’s commitment to enhancing media literacy and countering fake news.
 
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the one-day event was jointly organized by the Embassy of the ROC (Taiwan) in St. Lucia and the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS in collaboration with the St. Lucian government. It was the second GCTF event held in the Caribbean ally.
 
ROC (Taiwan) Amb. to St. Lucia Peter Chia-yen Chen, U.S. Amb. to Barbados Linda Taglialatela and St. Lucia’s acting PM Shawn Edward all gave opening remarks. Other notable participants included Francisco Bencosme, senior policy advisor for China at USAID; Barbara Feinstein, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for Caribbean affairs and Haiti; St. Lucia Senate President Alvina Reynolds; and Emma Hippolyte, St. Lucia minster of commerce, manufacturing, business development, cooperatives and consumer affairs.
 
Citing Taiwan as an example, Chen outlined the danger disinformation poses to the world’s democracies and called on attendees to enhance media literacy as a way to strengthen democratic resilience in the Caribbean. Taglialatela emphasized that media literacy is a key skill in the 21st century, adding that members of the free world need to expand related cooperation to ensure democratic integrity and promote public welfare.
 
Since its launch in June 2015 by Taiwan and the U.S., with Japan and Australia joining later, GCTF has become a critical platform for the four sides to contribute to global problem-solving and share expertise with regional stakeholders in areas such as energy cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, media literacy, public health, and women’s empowerment.


Source: Noticias de Taiwan (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)