Pilot program to protect the younger generation from fake news and the practice of pupils and pupils in the control of news and false information will be piloted this year in thirty schools, as announced by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister and Government spokesman Pavlos Marinou Readers ”, in the context of the 89th Thessaloniki International Exhibition.

The “Critical Readers” program aims to cultivate news literacy, critical thinking and digital responsibility for students 12-18 years. In order to achieve it will be made to link news to lessons such as history, sociology and language. At the same time, it is envisaged to engage students in reporters, editors, photographers and multimedia creators.

The initiative will be put into pilot application in October 2025 in 30 high schools and high schools (Athens, Thessaloniki, Kastoria, Chania, Patras, Larissa, Heraklion, etc.) and will last 12 months. Its implementation provides for the training of both teachers and journalists who participate in it. In the context of the program, there will be interactive workshops with themes such as:-Fake News-Critical use of artificial intelligence in information (how to identify errors, misleading uses and algorithmic distortions)-Protection of Personal Data and Digital Security.

In June 2026, after all, a World Congress will be held in Athens, with the participation of representatives from international universities and organizations, with the aim of highlighting Greece as a hub in the education of news literacy.

The innovation of the program lies in the fact that for the first time a systematic program of news education is implemented in Greece, with a combination of journalism, artificial intelligence and state education, which, among other things:-It offers practical tools to stand up to over-information, avoiding information and non-criticism. Methods (production of podcasts, articles, videos, campaign) promotes reading and analysis of printed and digital type, enhancing the readability and viability of the type.

During the event, Mr. Marinakis pointed out that the idea emerged many months ago in collaboration with the former Minister of Education and current Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, while being implemented in collaboration with the General Secretariat for Communication and Information and Information and Information Panagiotou.

He stressed that misinformation is not just a problem but a crisis and commented: “It is a scourge that – if we do not react as we have a duty to these children and our own children – will overwhelm everyone and everything. The political system is not threatened by just one lie. A party or a government is not threatened, our daily lives are often threatened. We may lose part of our property from a lie, threaten the lives of our own people, lead to a wrong life decision, our children to be in danger very seriously. The country may be in danger of a lie. I remind you of the supposed dead Maria in Evros. The supposed tips we taxed. I remind you of the most tragic of all, the lies that some have said about a very tragic accident, the most tragic, the Tempi accident, exploiting the pain of relatives. Why do we lead to saying that this is a crisis? Because the means of propagation are completely different. “

Regarding the program, he said that its purpose is to give children the opportunity to read, control, look for and understand what they may have with a lie. “What do we want to do? We want to tell these children and to us parents, that the intersection of information, critical thinking, is not a recipe that a bad teacher wants to know. It can change our lives, it can improve us and can protect us from many dangers, ”he added. On his own competence, he noted: “I have the honor, more than two years beyond the deputy minister for the media and the press, to be a government spokesman. It is difficult for the ten questions you receive, in the eight-nine to be answers to a lie, to answer a slander. But it’s also a price. “

For her part, Ms Zacharakis emphasized that the issue of the action that will start piloting in schools is the development of the free and critical thinking of the younger generation to control what is heard and written. “The contact we have with the mobile, with the tablet, generally with the screen has often prevented us from gathering to read a whole text or read a book,” he said and addressed to the children: “Your parents or grandparents read, reach a conclusion. We do not say that we will magically achieve this with a pilot program. Professors at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki set up a program that will run for a few hours in schools will be in 30 schools this year and if we go well we will evaluate it, see how the program went, it will go all over Greece. We want to give you yet another essential, structured, systematic tool, to have another tool from the public school. “

“It is important to be suspicious, to have durability and to know that we have to control this. I hope we offer children critical thinking, restoring the relationship with reading, and a new parameter that makes you small reporters and the strictest auditors of those who are moving around you, ”he added.

The event was attended by pupils and students from the 2nd Pylea High School and the 1st GEL Evosmos.