“Our modernity, which often speaks of being in a hybrid war or a hybrid threat against democracy, of course one of the basic tools, one of the basic weapons, is precisely disinformation and hate speech, especially in the field of ethnic and religious affiliations. In that sense, we see that polarization, fear, insecurity, division, and chauvinism prevail as part of the arsenal of the centers of power that want to destabilize any democracy, including the Macedonian. What can institutions do, and what are they doing, to be able to stand in the way of such threats in society? Of course, whether and how much can the institutions and the civil society, and the respected media, do in this battle? – asked Xhabir Deralla, moderator at CIVIL’s event “European values - (im)possible mission: Equality, non-discrimination and multiculturalism through the prism of policies and practices at the national level.” The question was directed at Mr. Artan Grubi, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Intercommunity Relations.
VPM Grubi: Of course, that is my favorite topic, in fact I got a doctorate in it, especially in public opinion, because I am also a journalist by profession, and my entire education is related to journalism. I think that only the media, only civil society organizations, only a state institution, or any individual cannot win in the new challenges in isolation. With the advent of the printer, the way news is placed at this time is challenged. The same thing happened with radio, with newspapers, and with television.
The same thing is happening now with the internet, which is causing the current establishment that cannot cope and adapt to the new circumstances brought to us by the internet, and the possession of individual media, all of us, through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, any platform, YouTube… You have your own media where you can place, and create an audience. You can create real news, you can create fake news, you can spread propaganda, you can spread misinformation by inciting any riots. We followed the misinformation about the results of the US presidential election in 2016, with Brexit in Britain the next year, and then it had an impact on the elections in Germany, on the elections in France, there was an attempt on the elections in Montenegro, and on the elections in our country, and finally, if you remember, we carried out such a hacker attack on the State Election Commission on the day the results were announced.
And imagine what would happen if such an intrusion showed a different picture of the election results, different from the real one, in the ballot boxes, and what would be the reaction of the party supporters who would falsely pretend to be the winner of those elections… When would you accept the results of those elections that they are legitimate? Never. Because he will think that democracy has been played. This is a direct attack on democracy as we know it, and we need to find a way to adapt to the new challenges of our time, such as printing, television, newspapers and radio. And that is why I say that individually, i.e. a single element cannot make a successful contribution to the whole mosaic of the social challenge. And we will have to jointly identify misinformation and false news, and publicly challenge them and not accept them. In the institutions, in the Government we are working on that, I think that especially the state media, especially the national television, but especially MIA, as an agency should be much more active in delivering news, which are especially in the war against fake news, and have a special department, a separate sector where he will work on this.
I think we have two non-governmental projects that work on fact-checking, but it does not achieve the effect, because people read the headline, do not read the content, and through the headline they create their own opinion and conviction on the issue, and consequently, in that way reacts. Until the real news arrives, then it is too late. It’s like a denial of a news story. Therefore, I think that I should also advocate for this in the Government, that the state media agencies should be much more active in this area, and of course the mainstream media that are here before us, to stand on the line against misinformation, fake news and deliberate propaganda.
D. Tahiri
Camera: Atanas Petrovski
Editing: Arian Mehmeti
Photography: Igor Chadinoski
