"DIPLOMATIC NEWS FROM BRUSSELS" BY MILOSHOSKI – DISINFORMATION IN "COOPERATION" WITH A BULGARIAN PORTAL

MP Antonio Miloshoki used his personal Facebook page last week to, once again, spread disinformation. Given the manner and mechanism used, this is an organized and coordinated attempt to disinform the public on the part of MP Antonio Miloshoski and a portal from Bulgaria. The aim is to show that Bulgaria is not the only country in the EU that is against holding the first intergovernmental conference. He states that the Netherlands and Denmark are against North Macedonian negotiations as well.

On December 2nd, 2020, MP Antonio Miloshoski shared a post on his Facebook profile, naming it “Diplomatic News from Brussels.” The post states that at a meeting of ambassadors that night in Brussels, Bulgaria blocked the conclusions on Macedonia, not only the negotiating framework. He goes on to say that it seemed that Bulgaria was not alone but had discreet diplomatic support from at least two other EU member states. At the end of the announcement, it is stated that this news was allegedly from diplomatic sources in Brussels.

The statement of MP Miloshoski was transmitted by the Bulgarian media 24chasa.bg, which on December 3rd first published a text with his status, i.e., that two more EU member states have joined the big veto for Macedonia, according to diplomatic sources from Brussels. In the evening of the same day, 24chasa.bg published another text in which it specifically mentions Denmark and the Netherlands as countries that support Sofia’s veto on Skopje, citing a diplomatic source. However, this text also mentions the status of the MP Antonio Miloshoski as an alleged additional source for the “information.”

This news was transmitted by 10 other Bulgarian portals, while in our country, it was transmitted by 50 portals that referred to the Bulgarian media 24chasa.bg. Despite the fact that the number of Facebook interactions is higher in Bulgaria, it is obvious that the focus of such disinformation is North Macedonia.

The disinformation was denied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Dutch Embassy in Skopje, as completely unfounded and false news.

However, even after the denial was published, on December 4th, 24chasa.bg continued with the “intention”, this time with an article that allegedly a “high diplomatic source from Brussels confirmed the information that Denmark and the Netherlands unofficially support the Bulgarian veto on the start of negotiations on The Republic of North Macedonia, although both countries preferred not to make it public at this stage. ”

This is not the first example of unethical reporting on the part of this portal. In 2019, it published an article alleging that two more member states – the Netherlands and Sweden – were also considering leaving the European Union. This article followed Great Britain’s vote to leave the EU and cited a certain business expert.

These speculative posts are typical for the MP from VMRO-DPMNE, Antonio Miloshoski, and are already known to the public. As sources of disinformation, MP Miloshoski, in combination with the Bulgarian media 24chasa.bg, tried to manipulate the public in order to discredit the entire process of accession to the European Union and the Union itself. This is another example of how disinformation is spread. Namely, the portal refers to anonymous diplomatic sources from Brussels, and in order to give credibility to the disinformation, it uses the status of Miloshoski.

F2N2 had already written about Miloshoski’s attempts to disinform the public back in June 2019.