The Communications Commission has successfully held the eleventh edition of the medial literacy contest “Truth or Fiction?” Over 100 pupils from different regions across Georgia took part in the competition. A competent jury panel evaluated the submissions and identified three winners who received high-tech prizes from the Commission. According to the rules of the contest, participants were required to identify fake news in the media space (internet, television and printed media) that had not yet been confirmed as inaccurate. Using the format of their choice, the students then had to explain how they identified the information, present the relevant source and establish real facts surrounding the case. 

The first place in the contest went to Mariam Akobidze, an 11^th grade pupil from the village of Kvemo Natanebi in the Ozurgeti Region. Her submission concerned an article published on the Media Sputnik website, which talked about a 20% increase in trade between Russia and the United States, citing the U.S. Customs website as a source. Mariam checked the original source and established that no such information was published by either the U.S. Customs or any other official body. Afterwards, Mariam verified the U.S.-Russia trade statistics on the official website of the U.S. Trade Representative and found that imports and exports between United States and Russia had actually decreased. She checked other reliable sources and finally became convinced that the information about a 20% increase in trade between the U.S. and Russia was fake. Mariam received a MacBook Air 15.3 from the Communications Commission. 

The second place went to Davit Kenkadze, a 9^th grade pupil of public school N147 in Tbilisi, whose work concerned an article published on the Georgia and the World website, claiming that Ukrainian tank drivers were damaging their tanks in order to avoid becoming involved in battles. The website cited the German magazine Der Spiegel as a source. To verify these claims, Davit searched for the information online and established that only Russian media sources had published such information. Furthermore, he checked the original source and found that it differed considerably from the article published by Georgia and the World and never even mentioned the actions of Ukrainian tank drivers. Furthermore, he searched for information about the author of the article and established that nothing could be found online. Finally, Davit used Google to check the photo included in the article and finally became convinced that the information was fake. Davit received an iPhone 15 Pro from the Commission. 

The third place went to Mariam Katsarava, a 10^th grade pupil from Public School N1 in Mtskheta, whose video submission concerned an article published by Sputnik Georgia, which claimed that the town of Vovchansk was assessed as a conveyor belt of destruction of the Ukrainian army. Mariam found both the headline and the identity of the author to be suspicious, as the latter had been frequently noted to spread disinformation. Thus, Mariam checked the information on the BBC website and consulted several other sources, finding that the real facts on the ground were completely different. Additionally, Mariam discovered several other false facts in the same article. She received an iPad 10.9 from the Commission. 

The media literacy contest “Truth or Fiction?” serves to develop analytical, fact-checking and critical thinking skills among young people. The contest has been held seven times for school pupils and four times for university students, with a total of 4400 youngsters taking part. In parallel with the competition, ComCom trained about 800 schoolchildren and 40 teachers across Georgia in media literacy. In audition, the students who authored the best submissions in the previous contests underwent “ToT” training for media literacy trainers and conducted 4 additional seminars for pupils.