1 March 2024
If the pressure from Russia was not that obvious in the Macedonian case with the banned imports of apples from Prespa, the example of Ecuador was pretty straightforward. By skillfully manipulating the business sector, the pressure put on the Ecuadorian leadership hit success and it changed its mind on the US offer to exchange the […]
1 March 2024
Despite this February marking the second anniversary since the start of Ukraine’s suffering at the hands of Russian aggression, which has resulted in thousands of casualties and never-ending destruction of everything significant for Ukraine and Ukrainians, Moscow’s disinformation campaign in regard to its military campaign continues to persistently spread throughout the world. Most recently, such […]
22 February 2024
Phото: who.int It is not true that the World Health Organization is killing children in Gaza. On the contrary, WHO representatives are constantly delivering medical and non-medical aid to Gaza, where hospitals have been demolished and conditions for medical treatment are dreadful. WHO collects donations for Gaza and relentlessly calls for a ceasefire in the […]
8 February 2024
The EU has never called for a war with Russia but has helped Ukraine to preserve its territorial integrity and democratic society. Europe condemns Russian aggression and appeals for it to stop. The claim that Macedonian citizens should prepare for mobilization is just arbitrary. So far, no one has announced any kind of mobilization. This […]
8 February 2024
Photo: Screenshot from the altered video Since the beginning of the year, a new deepfake video of Zelenskyy dancing in a red traditional costume has spread on social networks. The video of the President of Ukraine is shared on Facebook and TikTok. The video, however, is a fabricated clip from 2020, showing a Russian dancer […]
3 February 2024
PHOTO: Collage: Vladimir Putin, screenshot/YoutTube; map of Alaska, public domain Facebook posts are spreading disinformation regarding Putin’s latest decree according to which Alaska, the Baltic countries, Tibet, and other territories that historically belonged to the USSR and Imperial Russia will be retrieved back. The fake news started from ESSA News (Poland), spread through the Balkans, […]
2 February 2024
Several disinformation narratives have prevailed this year in the Macedonian-language online space and media – from Ukraine’s “statehood being at stake” should the war continue, to the claim that Zelenskyy has lost popularity. The most consistent disinformation narrative, however, concerns the connection between Kyiv elites and Nazism – a narrative directly promoted by Putin and […]
31 January 2024
Photo: Government of North Macedonia Despite the inaccurate, inflammatory, and nationalistic articles online, North Macedonia’s government was not “toppled”, nor did “the Albanians, slowly but surely, seize the power”. The newly elected government is a so-called technical government, also known as a “Przhino government”, in accordance with the Przhino Agreement , signed in 2015. The […]
26 January 2024
The flow of Russian disinformation has become familiar – it starts in Russia, travels to Serbia, and from there, it spreads throughout the entire Western Balkans. In the following case, however, disinformation’s source is in Bulgaria. The avalanche of disinformation started with an episode of the Bulgarian show “Don’t Be Afraid with Vasil Vasilev” and […]
24 January 2024
Photo: A screenshot from the video The video shared in the post we are fact-checking does not show Chinese immigrants fleeing from Russia following Putin’s offer of citizenship to foreigners fighting for Russia. It shows people traveling from Russia for New Year’s holidays. The video appeared a few days before Putin’s Decree on 4 January, […]
24 January 2024
A post on a Russian blog which is someone’s personal opinion first made rounds in Bulgarian media and then in Macedonian media and social networks, with a special addition – a statement allegedly made by Putin regarding dividing Bulgaria. However, Putin has never made such a statement, writes Truthmeter.mk. Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk […]
17 January 2024
Photo: A screenshot from the video A video featuring people donning Satanic costumes, masks, and makeup dancing and singing in Ukrainian is being used by the Russian propaganda apparatus to disinform the public. It is insinuated that it was recorded in Ukrainian church, thus making Ukraine out to be satanic and demonic. However, the video […]
13 January 2024
Photo: ukrinform.net Ukraine’s former Public Prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, is spreading unconfirmed data regarding the number of killed and wounded Ukrainian troops. In fact, in his own statement he calls upon authorities in Ukraine to publish the accurate data of wounded soldiers, thereby tacitly admitting that his statement was not based on official data. Ukraine has […]
13 January 2024
Source: ukrinform.net There is no publicly accessible opinion poll in Ukraine which shows that the trust in the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is 42 percent. Research by the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology shows that the public trust in Zelenskyy is 62 percent. However, Gallup’s recent research indicated that the trust of the Ukrainians […]
24 December 2023
Collage of photographs by Meta.mk TV shows, newspaper sections dedicated to China, columns and interviews of the Chinese Ambassador to North Macedonia, as well as promoting and publishing media content from leading Chinese media that are under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party. Unlike the decreased Chinese influence of the pro-European political […]
21 December 2023
Criminalizing once again the insult and slander, designating all non-governmental organizations that receive foreign donations (including the organizations working in journalism) as “agents of foreign influence” and establishing a Media Register, where the state decides who may or may not perform a journalistic activity. These are just some of the draft-law provisions that present a […]
21 December 2023
The facts show that the EU does not deny the Macedonian language, identity, and statehood in any way whatsoever. The reason why Ukraine and Moldova started EU accession talks before North Macedonia is not related to the EU disputing the Macedonian nation, language, history, or statehood, but to the fact that no one blocked the […]
20 December 2023
Photo: A screenshot of the video The sound was edited and does not correspond to the sound of the original video from Biden and Zelenskyy’s press conference (12 December), published by the prestigious Forbes. The audio was technically processed and edited, so it creates the impression that Biden smiled at a specific question from a […]
18 December 2023
The security problems in the Western Balkans are now also related to disinformation and fake news which try to destabilize the region and may hinder realization of the most important strategic objectives in the Western Balkans. On this topic and others, Portalb.mk conducted an interview with Bojana Zorić, an expert on security issues in the […]
14 December 2023
Photo: A screenshot of the video The video of the arrival ceremony for Russian President Vladimir Putin organized by the United Arab Emirates was published by several global media, such as Telegraph, Sky News, France 24, and CNN, which tells that the broadcast of the video was not banned, as the post we are fact-checking […]
