Disinformation is a problem to the security of thestate and all social actors must work together to prevent the consequences. This, among else, was said at the session that was moderated by chief editor of Portlab.mk Elida Zilbeari – “Solutions and next steps – recommendations for joint action”, within the framework of the conference “Dealing with Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia” , organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation, reports Portalb.mk.
Photo: Мета.мк
“My thesis is that all of us, together as involved parties, must act in a coordinated manner and be vocal. We who are here, are the mainstream that should win the fight against disinformation, because we have a name and last name, as opposed to those sitting in a basement and publishing disinformation. We are much more powerful than them. Democracy is stronger than disinformation, but it needs to be consolidated. I urge all actors in society to be vocal when someone tries to abuse our national sentiments, in the interest of goals that are not democratic. Disinformation have the goal of provoking conflict, divisions and in essence seek to cause conflict among the population. We need a massive joint campaign with the media and media organizations for educating the population in the fight against disinformation”, said Marjan Zabrcanec, National Coordinator for the Open Balkans and Regional Initiatives at the Government of the RNM.
The Executive Director of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia – AJM, Dragan Sekulovski, through a presentation showed how disinformation are spread, while the media are abused for political propaganda. According to the presentation, during the elections in 2021 alone, the political parties had poured 5.1 million euros into the media.
He said that there should be interventions in the Electoral Code in terms of party advertising, and that the budget of the MRT should also be increased, which according to him is very small, that is, in conditions when it should be 40 million euros, it is 11 million.
Photo: Мета.мк
“We recommend for parties to give up the the paid political program in the media, to strengthen the financial and institutional independence of the MRT, to improve the political culture, to support the self-regulation and for the media to rely on the Code of Ethics”, said Sekuloski.
Mihajlo Lahtov, Project Director of USAID’s Media Literacy Project YouThink, called for increasing the level of media education.
Photo: Мета.мк
“You cannot find media education among uneducated citizens. We cannot fight disinformation if we don’t have an education that will ensure media education. The cure is in education of the youth. A great percentage of the youth don’t want to know what is happening in the country. Nor do they want to know how their municipality spends its money, how public authorities function. Hence, they are completed excluded from the real world and are marginalized, view media content for entertainment. The youth tell me “they are all the same”, “it’s stupid”, “I’m not interested”, “all that is fake news”. I also think that’s it not right that all journalists are the same, in every profession there are professionals. We shouldn’t continue with a rhetorical fight against disinformation, but rather include them in the media education, to be part of our effort for entering the system, which in the future will make decisions in a more informed manner”, said Lahtov.
Xhabir Deralla, President of CIVIL, outlined that the issue of disinformation needs to be taken seriously, as it is a problem for the security of the state.
“I can conclude that it is not a problem to hunt for disinformation and to promote media education, we have a problem with the political culture. We not only have a problem with the media culture, but also with the political culture. We have a problem with the education, overall. We should know that the whole society is impacted, disinformation cannot be seen as unpretentious. Their fabrication is a security problem and we need to raise the fight against disinformation to a higher level, as it is of public interest”, said Deralla.
At the end, Executive Director of the Metamorphosis FoundationBardil Jashari closed the conference, stressing that the problem with disinformation is complicated and that it cannot be understood only from one angle, but that we need to have long-term goals, political culture, dialogue or creating a society where all citizens have basic skills to recognize disinformation and propaganda, but that takes a lot of time.
“The problem is what we need to do now, and for this we need to have short-term actions. This is also a security issue – it’s important that all citizens, institutions and organization know this and we need action, because, not that there are no projects and initiatives, it’s just that if we implement it strategically, I think that we will be more efficient. It’s important for the Government and civil society organizations to be open for cooperation. It’s very important that we start working together, first to have a strategic document and to contribute within the framework of our competencies”, said Jashari.
Otherwise, today’s conference was opened by President Stevo Pendarovski, and was attended by representatives of relevant institutions, professionals, from the civil sector and members of the international community.
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
