The sun cast a warm autumn glow over Baku on October 26, as a gathering of media professionals, policymakers, and thought leaders took their seats for a special session titled “The Language of Peace and Combating Disinformation.” The atmosphere in the hall was one of quiet urgency, a collective recognition that the battle for truth has never been more critical. As the session began, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration, stepped forward. He did not merely address the audience as a government official; he spoke with…

In Switzerland, as in much of the world, the line between information and illusion has grown dangerously thin. A major new study by the Research Centre for the Public Sphere and Society (fög) at the University of Zurich has found that a remarkable 56.5% of the Swiss population now regard fake news as a major social problem—a figure that has climbed significantly over the past five years. That means more than half of the country has looked at their screens, seen a headline, a video, or a viral claim, and felt a creeping sense that they can no longer tell…