Over 40 percent of Czechs see information war as government excuse for censorship

Four out of ten Czechs think that the oft-cited "information war" with Russia is just an excuse for Western governments to restrict freedom of speech, according to a survey carried out in the Visegrad Group (V4) countries by the Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO). The survey found that 41 percent of respondents agreed with this statement in both Czechia and Hungary, compared to 35 percent in Slovakia and 24 percent in Poland.

On the other hand, 39 percent of Czechs said they thought that Russia was indeed waging an information war against the West, including in their own country. This was more than in Hungary, where only about a third of respondents agreed with this statement, but less than in Slovakia (42 percent) and Poland (55 percent).

The survey also asked how easy or difficult it was for people to determine the veracity of news on specific topics ahead of the upcoming European Parliament elections. The most difficult topic for Czechs to verify information about was the European Commission's policy on the future of the automobile industry, such as the ban on internal combustion engines, with almost half of Czech respondents, 49 percent, saying they found it difficult to distinguish between true and false information on this topic. This was followed by the war in Ukraine (48 percent) and the energy crisis (47 percent).