Research & Studies

A study published by the MedDMO team in the Online Information Review focuses on the perception of disinformation among journalism students in Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The study examines how journalism students in Greece, Cyprus and Malta perceive and understand disinformation, particularly with regard to migration issues.

Through this report, by focusing on Facebook, MedDMO demonstrates that deepfake-powered scams have emerged on social media platforms in Greece. Since late 2022, fact-checkers have identified several cases of fraudulent advertisements using AI-generated content, representing a notable evolution from traditional online fraud tactics.

In this report, we present the work conducted under Work Package 5 regarding the monitoring of media plurality in the region of Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The report examines the plurality and diversity of the news media ecosystem in 2024 in the three countries comprising the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) Hub.

Multiple false narratives about COVID-19 vaccines and their alleged harmful effects have spread across Cyprus, including fabricated stories about celebrity deaths caused by vaccines, distorted research findings about cancer survival rates and false claims about vaccines’ effect on behaviour. This report examines how some of these claims originated and made their way across the country.

This report examines a disinformation campaign promoting various unproven alternative medicine therapies and substances as miraculous cures for serious medical conditions. These narratives exploit people’s desire for simple, natural solutions to complex health problems while deliberately omitting critical safety information and scientific evidence.

In 2000, the Maltese government granted a private company a 99-year lease to develop two abandoned sites steeped in history on Malta’s north-eastern coast, including Manoel Island, a small island measuring just 0.3km , home to a magnificent fort and lazzaretto and nestled within one of Malta’s natural harbours.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation about vaccines remains widespread across Greece. Some falsely claim that vaccines are linked to aggressive forms of cancer, others distort studies to link them to genetic disorders and sudden deaths. This report examines some of the more prominent and problematic claims.

In a country that suffers from deep polarisation, protest for political accountability is dismissed as a partisan act. Malta’s ruling party, the Labour Party, particularly capitalised on this in early 2025, when civil society fought against the magisterial inquiry reform bill that was widely regarded as an attack on the rule of law. By propagating the narrative that civil society is an extremist faction of the Opposition, the government and its media have fostered social division as a means of exerting control.

The podcast run by controversial MEP Feidias Panagiotou has featured a series of misleading claims about the Russian-Ukraine war, including descriptions of the conflict as a civil war, rather than an international invasion. This report discusses some of the more prominent claims made on Panagiotou’s podcast.

This is the second part of MedDMO’s annual report on platform practices and national authority support for Cyprus, Greece, and Malta. Covering the period from 1 January to 30 June 2024, the report offers a qualitative assessment of how…