One of the fake news campaigns in North Macedonia is aiming to increase the skepticism among the citizens regarding the European Union, said the Metamorphosis Foundation’s Director Bardhyl Jashari in “Click Plus” on TV 21. In the show he spoke about the ways the disinformation undermines the democracy, writes Portalb.mk
“In North Macedonia, the support for the EU in 2007 was over 90%. As a result of various campaigns by of actors whose seat is in Moscow, the support for the EU in North Macedonia in 2019 dropped to around 65%. Now, I think, it’s even smaller. What is important is that as a direct consequence of these campaigns, which main narrative, apart from the fake news, is to show the West as one weak system, the EU as a system where there is no unity, a system that doesn’t bring any welfare for its people and as a result to these campaigns, the Euroscepticism has increased by 3%. As a result, apart from the drop in the support for the EU, the number of those that are skeptical of the EU has increased by 3%. And this is a direct consequence of these disinformation campaigns,” Jashari pointed out.
He said that one of the false news sources in North Macedonia are the political subject’s PR unitss.
“There are a lot of sources of false news. We can say that part of this false news is made up by the PRs who work for various political subjects. Then there is another source that is more dangerous, the outside one, that is serving foreign agents,” said Jashari.
The whole show with Jashari can be seen here:
Otherwise, this Tuesday, in Skopje, a conference titled “Dealing with Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia” was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation.This event was dedicated to building a multi-sectoral approach to solving the problem of disinformation through the joint engagement of state institutions, independent media, civil society organizations, academia and the private sector.
The event also presented recommendations that the Metamorphosis Foundation proposes as a basis for joint social action to address this problem, obtained as a result of the research process and data analysis within the activities to combat disinformation..
The conference provided a platform for discussion among stakeholders working to develop democracy by combating disinformation and promoting freedom of expression, enabling them to network and share experiences..
