The situation with disinformation and propaganda in our country is catastrophic. Propaganda is an integral part of the media. To a great extent, reporting affects the position of political parties in our country, and political parties are always fighting for power, and that brings a lot of money. I have always seen propaganda and journalism through the prism of money. There is more money in electronic media than in the ferrous metallurgy, says Ljubomir Kostovski, a long-time journalist and former member of the ad-hoc body for monitoring the media.
Kostovski stresses that in our country the news is made from one center, as it happens that a leader of a political party appears 7-8 times and gives answers on different topics, which he had said at a press conference answering previously agreed and ordered questions.
He says there are political parties that are afraid of the media, but there are also such politicians who hold them firmly in their embrace and don’t let them go, regardless of whether they are in opposition or in power.
“Television is a very important lever of government, perhaps even the most important. Some party makes it its priority. In debates that we have participated in as journalists, we see that some television stations are not ashamed to bring to a debate a person who is in charge of propaganda, as that person’s job. I find this unfitting. They invite the spokesperson of a party to a debate, while this person carries with him a whole bunch of materials, carries two cell phones and constantly receives messages while the debate lasts. These are special elements that violate elementary rules. We leave our cell phones in the dressing room, so that they don’t bother us, and also not to constantly receive directions on what to talk about and what to ask”, says Kostovski.
Kostovski adds that little is spoken about the truth, because well-known people appear in debates, who spread political propaganda and disinformation.
“I have attended certain debates to which I was invited, such spokespersons stopped any opportunity for debate even before the recording started, he is already counting the people and says ‘you have brought three people who will be attacking the policy of my party, and I am supposed to be defending it alone’. And he has come with a bunch of materials, with constant connections, and this is not fitting at all, and the editorials keep doing this”, stressed Kostovski.
In the interview, he also speaks about the gross violation of the political propaganda advertising during election campaigns.
Sonja Tanevska
camera: Samuel Debus
editing: Arian Mehmeti
photography: Dehran Muratov
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.
