The portal “Kurir” instead of reflecting on the real problems discussed in the A1on story, about citizens without any identification documents, about the impunity for some procedures and about concerned citizens, this time again, with their “side of the story” are spreading lies and manipulations.
Attacks and spreading of false news related to the migrants in the country continue. The latest example is the article published on the portal “Kurir” with the headlines “VIDEO: Migrant tried to rape girls in Skopje”.
It concerns contents previously published on the internet portal А1оn about a man presenting himself as a migrant, but who actually is a delinquent well known to the police. According to informal information that citizens have received from the police on the ground, this person was deported from Belgium several years ago, while his identity has been confirmed through fingerprints, since he has no personal identification.
The portal “Kurir” instead of reflecting on the real problems discussed in the A1on story, about citizens without any identification documents, about the impunity for some procedures and about the concerned citizens, this time again, with their “side of the story” are spreading lies and manipulations.
This portal, along with several others, are already well known to the public when it comes to spreading false news, especially in regards to migrants and the “migrant crisis” at a time when, actually, there is a really insignificant number of migrants in the country.
Just to recall, not so long ago, during the campaign for the presidential elections, an article appeared in this media titled “Tensions on the Macedonian-Greek border”, related to the clashes between the migrants and the Greek police in the temporary camp Diavata near Thessaloniki.
What the media deliberately, or not, forgot to explain is that the camp has nothing to do with the border crossings of the two countries, and that it is located about 60 kilometres from the border.
During the campaign for the local elections in 2017, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, using lies and disinformation, published precisely through these portals, manipulated with its supporters who went as far as to collect signatures for a referendum against the construction of refugee camps in several municipalities in the country, although there was no such plan for construction of these camps. More specifically, there were initiatives for a referendum at the municipal level to be held together with the local elections, at a time when there were fewer migrants in the country than the number of initiatives.
The denials of the Government that there will be no settling of migrants, nor that flats would be built for them, did not change the minds of councils of several municipalities to bring a decision for referendums to be held on the issue of the settling of migrants, and for the referendums to be held on the very same day with the local elections.
At that time, the councils of as many as fourteen municipalities brought a decision for announcing referendums, for later to have the state inspectorate for local self-government annul the adopted decisions. All this, based on false news, xenophobia and hate speech. The referendums were not held, nor were the camps ever built. The only thing that was left was an unlearned lesson, both by the politicians and the citizens, that manipulations do not bring anything good to the country.
Маја Ivanovska
