Think of the last time you saw a post about a woman in public life that focused on her outfit, her age, her family, or her relationships instead of her actual work. That instinct to judge by gender is not just a personal bias; it can be deliberately weaponized. According to Iryna Lysychkina, a Ph.D and Associate Professor at NATO DEEP eAcademy, gendered disinformation is the deliberate use of false, misleading, or manipulative information that exploits gender stereotypes to influence opinions, emotions, and behavior. It often targets women in public life, but its ultimate objective is much broader: to shape…

On a damp October morning in Istanbul, the news cycle was dominated by politics and diplomacy, but for Turkey’s independent journalists the day began with a familiar question: would today bring a summons, a detention, a charge? In recent years, that fear has become a daily reality, as Turkish authorities have turned a vaguely worded disinformation law into a weapon against the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a global press freedom group, reported on October 5, 2026 that authorities are using Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code to repeatedly detain and arrest journalists for doing their jobs. The…