Established in 1997 as a grassroot citizen organisation for election monitoring, Gong today acts as a think-do tank, improving democratic processes and institutions, developing democratic political culture in Croatia and EU, and encouraging the active and responsible citizen participation in political processes. To realise these goals, gong is focused on higher transparency and righteousness of the electoral process, management of public servant conflicts of interest, better access to information, more inclusive creation of public policies, larger political responsibility, increased citizen participation, progressive digital environment, as well as a resilient civic society.
Through its numerous activities and projects, gong is engaged in a large number of online campaigns for awareness raising, education, and advocacy on topics from a large spectrum of Gong’s interests and activities. Examples include campaigns on good governance, democracy, legal system, anti-corruption, right to access information, open data, civic society, electoral system, voter rights, young people participation, and active citizenship. These activities are performed through the use of visually attractive videos, quizzes, infographics, visuals, comics, amateur videos, and other means. The campaigns often have a large number of reactions (comments and shares), reaching through to wider audiences.
Established in 2003 as one of the youngest universities in Croatia, UNIDU has 2000 students and 150 multidisciplinary professors in six departments: Economy, Maritime studies, Electrical engineering and Computing, Aquaculture, Mass Communication, and Art and Restauration. This diversity enables scientific research in various fields, based upon the principles of sustainable development, socially responsible behaviour and excellence, which are continuously built-in in local and wider society and community, alongside the promotion of international and inter-university cooperation.
The University of Dubrovnik has contractualised several research projects in the field of network science, data, and computer science. Additionally, its professors have contributed to projects focused on journalist education, active citizenship, and citizen participation, reconciliation in South Eastern Europe, and media literacy, to name a few.
The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER, University of Zagreb, Croatia) is the largest technical faculty and the leading educational and R&D institution in the fields of electrical engineering and computing in Croatia. UNIZG-FER is organized at 12 departments, with research/educational staff comprising 150 professors and 250 teaching assistants and researchers operating in more than 60 laboratories.
It is responsible for the development of the prototype AI for early detection of potential disinformation in news, and on digital platforms (Facebook i Twitter), in the Croatian language - through its research group for textual analysis and knowledge engineering (TakeLab FER).
The group has broad experience with the development of advanced language technologies for information extraction and semantic search, semantic computing models for digital content analytics and management services, as well as large-scale data exploration, visualization, knowledge discovery, and data-driven decision support systems. TakeLab has coordinated and participated in a number of international and national projects related to natural language processing and semantic text analysis.
The Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb is the oldest political science and journalism educational and research institution in this part of Europe and the only study of political science in Croatia. The faculty, with nearly 1.700 students, is an integral part of the University of Zagreb that holds a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education. In 1996, the Faculty founded its own radio station, Radio Student, adding to the quality of its journalism program through interlinking of academic and practical skills and encouraging student creativity. In 2012, it was joined by Student Television, and both media are autonomously run by students, under the guidance of faculty members and associated experts. In 2014, the faculty launched student newspapers Global.
The only Croatian media since 2015, specialised in fact-checking. Based upon professional and ethical journalism, free from outside influence, Faktograf.hr frequently fact-checks statements made by politicians and others who influence public discourse, exposing disinformation and giving context to political divisions, and social issues. The editorial policy of Faktograf.hr is protected by the redaction’s Statute, and its award-winning journalists uphold the Ethic Codex of Croatian Journalists. Faktograf is a member of the International network for fact-checking, and a co-signer of its Ethical Codex, as well as a member of the Seecheck - a collection of news portals dedicated to fact-checking in South Eastern Europe.
