Petrit Saracini at CIVIL’s panel discussion “Pandemic and infodemic” held on December 1, pointed out that certain surveys from the United States show that citizens inform themselves more from social networks than from commercial media, and that the same thing is happening across the world, hence in our country as well. He added that social networks are usually the “stand” where false information is served.

“In April and May there were times when we had 2-3 pieces of disinformation every day, not as one product, but orchestrated sharing of fake news and disinformation. We had over 100 examples amidst the pandemic, when we had restrictive measures, when everyone was at home, they followed this information and were victims of the same, not only consuming them, but often also acting upon them” added Saracini.

He pointed out that in legislation when we speak about slander, insult, hate speech, the restrictions and how far freedom can go are clear.

“And when a court or body determines whether something is a violation, it first starts from the intention, to mislead the public to a misconception. If there is such, then it should be qualified as some kind of an act.

Traditional media wanted regulation on the online media, we had TV stations and newspapers that refused to open online websites”, pointed out Saracini.

He emphasized that in order to prevent the flow of disinformation there should be fast information from the relevant institutions. Saracini added that few media deal with exposing disinformation, and that the fight against fake news would be better and more efficient if traditional media also engaged in it.

He also noted that the present media associations have not initiated a debate on the government strategic plan for combatting fake news and disinformation.

D.M
camera: Atanas Petrovski
editing: Arian Mehmeti

translation: N. Cvetkovska