Dejan Georgievski from Media Development Centre, in an interview for CIVIL Media on the question about the situation with disinformation and propaganda in our country, reflects on online media and points to social media as the main source of disinformation.

“There has always been propaganda and there always will be, so, I don’t see why Macedonia would in any way escape that situation, to be free from propaganda or from various centers of power that want to sell their story”, says Georgievski.

He doesn’t think that there is a quick solution in the fight against disinformation, because nothing has changed on a global level, except for the possibility of new channels being opened, independent of any such control.

“I expect from the media to follow professional standards and that is the best they can do in the fight against disinformation. To check what they put out and in this way contribute the most to true and realistic reporting to the public”, says Georgievski and adds that he doesn’t expect political parties and other entities to give up on the idea of spreading fake news”

He adds that he would want to be able to influence the centers that are sources of disinformation, but thinks that it is a utopian idea.

“A good part of the responsibility lies with the audience. I am a traditional media user, that is, I have chosen a few media outlets that I trust, because I think that their editorial standards and the way they work contribute to conveying of real and true information’, he says.

Georgievski expects from the citizens to apply the traditional way of using the media, but considers that perhaps that is a utopian idea, because it concerns free thinking and belief.

Biljana Jordanovska

Prepared by: А. Risteski
camera and editing: Samuel Debus/OK-TV Ludwigshafen

Translation: N. Cvetkovska

The interview is part of the project “Resilient journalism in countering disinformation and propaganda”, which CIVIL is implementing in partnership with Youth4Media (Y4M), with the support of the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dusseldorf, Germany.