Fourteen European countries have no disinformation laws. Portugal is one of the exceptions

Portugal is one of six European countries with laws against disinformation, according to research by European NGO DisinfoLab.

In the case of Portugal, this is Law 15/2022, which simplifies the “right to protection against disinformation”, and this provision is included in the Portuguese Charter for Human Rights in the Digital Age, approved by Parliament in 2021.

The article states that “the State ensures compliance in Portugal with the European Action Plan against Disinformation in order to protect society from natural or legal persons, “de jure” or “de facto”, who produce, reproduce or disseminate narratives considered to be disinformation. “

The DisinfoLab study, based on reports from 20 European Union (EU) member states, including Portugal, published in December, was conducted by 45 experts, including academics and fact-checkers, to provide an overview of disinformation and “describe and analyze the most emblematic cases of disinformation, recurring narratives » in the analyzed countries.

Other countries with legislation in this area are France, which has a law for election periods, Greece, which criminalizes “fake news” that could “cause concern or fear among the public” in areas such as the economy or defense, or even Latvia . which introduced criminal liability for the dissemination of false information causing a serious breach of public order.

In Lithuania, the Constitution stipulates that freedom of expression is incompatible with disinformation, and in Romania the Criminal Code punishes the spread of false news.

The report notes that most countries do not have specific laws on disinformation, and this phenomenon is dealt with within the framework of criminal codes or even the constitution, which does not prevent the fight against disinformation. The list includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Spain, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.