(CRT) TOP LIST OF DISINFORMATION IN THE CASE “RACKET”

A lot of disinformation about the case “Racket” leaked to the media. The F2N2 team registered some of them. We would like to point out that in addition to the numerous speculative and misinforming narratives, what came out on the surface about this case is the vocabulary that most of the media communicated with.

The media must pay attention to speech and ethics. Journalists should transmit information, while respecting professional standards and ethical principles, so that the information they present to the public is objective and accurate.

A search was executed in the home of the Prosecutor Lile Stefanova, the Prosecution denies

This speculation was published by Plusinfo on 15.07.2019 at 22:56 pm. But it was later rewritten and updated with the information from the Prosecutor’s Office and Stefanovska’s statement, who told the media that this was not true. The disinformation was reported by several media outlets.

Link to the article: Plusinfo

Archive of the news: Netpress, Signal, Presscentar, Vecer.press, Brif, Press24

The Police executed a search in the home of Katica Janeva

This disinformation was published in the media by Kanal 5. Many other media also broadcasted it. Various speculations complemented this disinformation.

The disinformation was denied by the BPPO, which said that Katica Janeva’s  mobile phone had been confiscated. The BPPO did not specify the name of the prosecutor who is part of the case “Racket”, but revealed that Janeva’s phone was confiscated in order to determine if there is a connection between the prosecutor and Bojan Jovanovski, who is the first suspect in the case.

Lile Stefanova arrested

The speculation was initially published on Aleksandar Dinevski’s social media private profile. But after the swift denial done for the media, Dinevski himself deleted it from his profile.

Boki had security from MoIA

The director of The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AAAMS), Zoran Trajcevski, made a statement in the TV show “Code” that the person Bojan Jovanoski, because of reasonable suspicions, used official security from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (since the beginning of this year), due to threats to his security for broadcasting the series “Insider”, after which the AAAMS requested the Ministry of Interior Affairs for information in order to verify its accuracy.

This information was taken and spinned by most of the media, giving the impression that the said person was in fact using an official security. The MIA reacted to this spin, with a response to the Director of AAAMS followed by a reaction by the Director of AAAMS, Zoran Trajcevski. In this case, because of a spin, both “Code” and Zoran Trajcevski were abused.

Katica’s phone code

With a sensationalist headline, which has no other purpose than to discredit, the portal Skopje 1 broadcasted reactions from private profiles on the social networks. The broadcast of opinions posted on social networks has no journalistic value, because these are personal views of individuals. Plus, the title itself is unethical, and except for the sensation aimed at achieving fast clicks, it offers neither objective nor accurate information. On the contrary, such speech in the media, which encourages personal discrediting, is unethical. The speech culture in the media is very important. 

Katica Janeva has escaped

This disinformation emerged after the press conference of the President of VMRO-DPMNE’s Women’s Union. The speculation was easily accepted by some of the media. The portal Infomax attempted to enrich it with a series of additional disinformation.

The portal Skopje 1, again in its recognizable style, used the social networks and through a speech that is inadmissible for the media, contributed to the spread of this speculation.

The spread of the disinformation was prevented by Janeva’s press conference. This event, on the other hand, was misused for numerous articles that discredited Janeva.