Lisbon, Dec. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - UNESCO consultant in the field of media education, Alexandre Sayad, believes that Portugal has the potential to advance in media literacy through a more robust integration of public policies.
In an interview with Lusa, Alexandre Le Voci Sayad explained that "Portugal shows significant potential for progress, especially with regard to the formalisation and more robust integration of public policies on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in the school curriculum, teacher training and coordinated national strategies".
According to the latest version of the Media Literacy Index, Portugal ranks 12th among 41 European countries, reflecting "consistent performance in structural indicators associated with media literacy, with relatively high levels of education, press freedom, institutional trust and a democratic environment".
"In the European context, Portugal is clearly above average, although below the traditional leading group, composed mainly of the Nordic and Baltic countries, which have historical and systemic media education policies," said the representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Nevertheless, Alexandre Le Voci Sayad points out that the index suggests that Portugal faces challenges common to southern Europe, such as "the fragmentation of initiatives and the absence of a long-term cross-cutting strategy".
The UNESCO representative mentioned that, globally, media literacy is "uneven and asymmetrical," since "few countries have structured public policies," although civil society, particularly through academia, carries out practices and research on the subject in almost all countries.
In this regard, Alexandre Le Voci Sayad explains that UNESCO aims to develop critical media and information literacy skills, based on the ability to access, locate and navigate information across different media and platforms.
To this end, it is necessary to "understand how media ecosystems and information institutions work," the consultant concluded.
"Added to this is the analysis and critical evaluation of content, sources and narratives, allowing us to distinguish facts from opinions, identify disinformation, propaganda and bias, including algorithmic bias, and understand the social, political and cultural role of the media in shaping public opinion and democratic life," he said.
Across the board, Alexandre Le Voci Sayad highlights "the importance of ethical and legal awareness in the use of information and technologies, including artificial intelligence, and lifelong learning, which strengthens critical autonomy, adaptation to constantly changing informational contexts, and informed and responsible participation."
In the same interview, the UNESCO consultant on media education said that no country is fully prepared to deal with disinformation.
"Every part of the world has vulnerable countries, and no nation is 100% prepared for the phenomenon of disinformation," said Alexandre Le Voci Sayad.
For the UNESCO representative, it is a constant race for policies that cover public education, low school enrolment, low learning levels and that enable the fight against disinformation, seen as a "fundamental concern".
"Disinformation is a phenomenon that ranges from information overload to inaccurate information, as well as news that is deliberately created to harm a group or an individual," explained the organisation's representative.
Alexandre Le Voci Sayad considered that the increase in disinformation during election time, together with the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), raises disinformation to a more complex level.
Thus, in order to establish a strategy to combat this, the UNESCO representative stressed the need to combine media literacy and information literacy.
"The goal is collaboration between the many epistemologies that exist in this field, bringing a vision focused on skills, and not just on approaches or academic origins," he concluded.
Alexandre Le Voci Sayad also noted that "combating disinformation means looking at the regulation of digital media, human rights, access, quality and equity in basic education, freedom of the press, and media and information literacy policies. Without any of these points, everything remains incomplete."
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