Former president of Latvia talks on modern challenges: Manipulation of information and attempts to distort meaning of words

The modern world has faced numerous challenges, among which are the manipulation of information and attempts by politicians to distort the true meanings of words to serve their interests, former President of Latvia (1999-2007), co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Vaira Vike-Freiberga said at the opening ceremony of the 12th Global Baku Forum, Report informs.

She noted that it is the abundance of information in the modern world that is used as a tool for manipulation.

The distortion of the meaning of words, Vike-Freiberga notes, can be observed in the statements of modern politicians.

"The famous British writer George Orwell described how politicians change the meaning of words to serve their interests in his novel '1984'. And we are observing exactly the same in the political arena today. For example, even before the war began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country had no intention of attacking Ukraine. 'These are just rumors,' he claimed. However, at that very time, they were amassing troops on the border with Ukraine. All this is an example of how the meaning of words changes," she said.

Vike-Freiberga also thanked the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for the initiative to hold the Global Baku Forum. According to her, this platform is of great importance as it brings together people from different parts of the world to discuss global problems.