BACKGROUND:The culture of communications is changing at a rapid pace, driven by the power of internet and social networks. As a result, users are encouraged to create personal echo-chambers at the expense of information pluralism and to move away from ethically informed journalistic accounts. It is, therefore, high time to encourage and empower spokespersons and journalists to get out of information bubbles, critically address the fake news phenomenon and develop responsible and accountable communication patterns and behaviors in the relationship with their audience. To achieve these objectives, CRESCEnt developed a 35 months collaborative endeavor for development of skills and competences related to ethical communication.OBJECTIVES:CRESCEnt aimed to capacitate spokespersons, journalists and communication specialists to use media reporting consciously and ethically. The intellectual outputs have the capacity to teach them to handle and become resilient to fake news, to build an ethics of reporting in texts, contexts, pictures and images, to perform double fact checking and how to provide and obey ethical grounds in handling sources, reporting terrorism, extremist violence and hate speech, the refugee crisis, insider leaks and truth telling for the preservation of democracy, individual freedom of expression and fundamental rights, as well as the rule of law. CRESCEnt approached a cross-sectorial media and strategic communication learning process and a guidelines aimed to change the way spokespersons and journalists in the security field understand and report security threats. CRESCEnt AIMS: (1) to develop a toolkit of techniques, methods and instruments for institutional spokespersons and journalists who communicate on issues related to security and law enforcement, as support in their professional activity; (2) to enhance through learning activities key-competences and skills of the spokespersons and journalists so that they become resilient to fake news, build an ethics of reporting, perform double fact checking, provide and obey ethical grounds in handling sources, report security threats and handle truth for the preservation of democracy and the rule of law. NUMBER & PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS: The targeted profile included institutional spokespersons and communicators, journalists accredited in reporting on security issues, students in journalism and communication management. The project activities were pursued by:- 57 on-site and 68 online attendees to the three Multiplier events organized similarly in Romania, Greece and Spain;- 15 participants to the short-term joint staff training event organized virtually;- 197 learners from the partner institutions and other 12 representatives of external organizations who pursued the virtual learning activities; - 1021 enrolled persons to the online course, out of which 404 completed the course; - 100% of the participants part of the target groups;- 409 subscribers to the newsletter.ACTIVITIES:The project included:- 1 short-term joint staff training event, ensuring the transfer of skills and knowledge to the practitioners from the partners’ organizations;- 3 virtual learning activities, organized with selected learners from the target groups, aiming to introduce practitioners into a new framework for delivering communication in relation to security, prevention and counteraction of criminal acts and innovative training approaches, materials and case studies;- 3 edition of lectures online (the MOOC), addressing the challenge of building awareness and developing resilience to disinformation, fake news, and hostile information influencing campaigns.RESULTS and IMPACT:The project resulted with 3 intellectual outputs:- a guidelines (IO1), which consists in a practical and innovative toolkit which acts as an instrument for efficiently managing public reporting in case of security threats and sensitive issues; IO1 has the capacity to empower spokespersons and journalists to use media reporting consciously and ethically.- a syllabus (IO2), which contains the instructional design and the structure of the learning activity; It facilitates the right premises for a strategic European partnership aimed at consolidating critical thinking and responsible reaction in the communication process.- the MOOC and open educational resources (OERs), which represents a 30-hour training module; the OERs may contribute to increasing the stock of educational digital content available through open access, and allow to extend the formative possibilities of the students and reach a greater number of institutional spokespersons, media professionals, and young journalists.BENEFITS:The results are freely accessible at https://crescentproject.eu/ and the MOOC will be available for future editions.