CIVIL sends sincere and deep condolences for the families and loved ones of the victims in the horrible fire that engulfed the modular hospital in Tetovo, on the night of September 8. This is great pain for the families and loved ones of the victims, but also for the entire society.

In these tragic moments, humanity and solidarity cannot by far compensate for the human losses, but can lessen the pain of the families and loved ones.

The public is expecting an investigation and results from professional services, and not from “couch-investigation” on the social networks, which started the same night.

CIVIL urges the public to distance itself from unchecked and unofficial information on this huge tragedy and calls on all citizens to reject and strongly condemn all those manipulating facts and sowing hatred on the social networks, as well as media that in human tragedies see opportunity for collecting clicks. What happened in Tetovo, can happen literally in any other settlement in our country or in the world, but the institutions and the media are called upon to help in easing the consequences of the tragedies.

The hate speech that appeared on the social networks immediately after videos and photos from Tetovo were published, does not bring any gain to those who abused the social networks, while firefighters and medical teams fought to save lives, and families were in shock and immense pain.

CIVIL strongly condemns the hate speech and calls on the responsible institutions to act and to sanction them accordingly to the laws and regulations.

“We also most sincerely believe that no one truly wishes for something like this to happen to anyone. Hence, we think that the hate speech is part of extreme irresponsibility and misunderstanding of the public communication. We call for responsibility, sympathy and solidarity in such moments – not profiting from misfortune” – appeals CIVIL.

While the investigation is in progress, and until the cause of this tragedy is known, CIVIL appeals to the entire society, political entities and individuals, not to rush to conclusions and accusations without solid evidence and arguments. It is necessary to leave the relevant institutions to work on the case and as soon as possible resolve it and act accordingly.

Our obligation as a society is to be humane and to offer our help and condolences, as people and as professionals, each in their own field.

CIVIL

*The press release uses parts of today’s Editorial, published on CIVIL MEDIA, available for publishing under the Creative Commons 4.0 license (downloading allowed, with a link to the source).