Prime Minister Zoran Zaev together with the EU-Commissioner for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir, opened the conference for the counties from Western Balkans, the EU -Western Balkans Media Days that is taking place in Skopje and is organized by the European Commission.
-It is inadmissible to allow the freedom of the press to remain only a declaration written in the laws and resolutions. In order to remain alive, authentic and put into practice every day, it has to come out of and be a part of economically sustainable, inde[endent pluralistic media sector, that exists in a functional state where the rule of law governs, as a guarantee for an authentic media freedom – said Zaev.
He also said that the “trend for spreading disinformation is a great underminer of the democratic and reformatory processes including the region’s Europeanization.”
-This para-information is part of the process of undermining the rule of law and the political stability that, among other, is influencing the work of the journalists. The fake news is always intended for discrediting people, to spread disinformation, to instigate conflicts, hatred, paranoia, conspiracy. In a regional context, the fake news is directed towards ethnic, political and religious intolerance, and are a joint enemy of the trend of reconciliation among the countries from the Western Balkans and their final Europeanization – said Zae.
He stressed that he advocates the concept of self-regulation i.e. the media professionals are those that will have to set the standards for themselves.
