Civil activist and journalist Petrit Saracini, otherwise President of the Institute for Media and Analytics, in the interview for CIVIL Media says that the situation with disinformation and propaganda in our country is worrying and that we are facing a big surge of disinformation, and says that this is particularly visible in the online sphere, as well as in some established media houses.

Saracini points to the Russian Federation as one of the sources of disinformation, as well as Serbia and its sensationalist media that later are conveyed in our country as well.

“Propaganda and disinformation are not a characteristic only for this part for which I talked about, but a characteristic of some political structures and actors too, as well as of some non-professional media outlets in the online sphere that usually are in favor of those political actors”, says Saracini.

The situation creates an environment of polarization, says Saracini, where trust in the institutions and the system is disrupted and citizens see not only the institutions with distrust, but also the media. Furthermore, he adds that the spread of disinformation is a world trend, but that it’s especially noticeable in fragile democracies such as our country.

“We, as a country, are at the bottom level of all measurements that show that in the country there is a really low level of media literacy. The process of full introduction starting from first grade and up to the fourth year of secondary education needs to speed up, namely, for the children, that is the youth to be aware and critically perceive information, that is, not to believe in everything that is served to them”, says Saracini.

He adds that the institutions should be much more transparent, in order to reduce the influence of disinformation.

“If true information is published, it is much more difficult for you to disinform”, he says.

Saracini adds that politicians must be more reserved in their discourse, because this public communication polarization brings no good to anyone.

“You could have some short-term benefit from being radical in your statements and attacking the political opponent, but that legitimizes the form of such discussion, tomorrow that same political opponent will start using that manner of communication”, says Saracini and adds that politicians must cool down their emotions, because they are pushing citizens into conflict on many grounds, such as interethnic, political, religious and so on.

The journalist outlines that the big established media houses have to be involved in the fight against disinformation and notes that they have a disturbed informative function, whereas the educational function is almost absent.

“The job of the media is not just to convey statements of politicians, but to check them and if they are not saying anything that is true or accurate, then the media needs to tell this to the audience”, says Saracini and adds that established media led by the rule to represent both sides, think that they have finished the job.

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.