FALSE NEWS CAUSED PANIC AMONG A LARGER GROUP OF CITIZENS

Spreading panic is one of the most common tools that propagandists or fake news producers use to get to the people. The easiest way is through news of alleged massive endangerment of citizens’ lives and health “from which no one will be saved”. With the emergence of the coronavirus, the terrain for panic and fear among the citizens is very clear as citizens can no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood from the huge influx of news on portals and social networks, which is by also a challenge for the journalists themselves.

News has spread in recent days that an infected doctor from the Skin Clinic was at a wedding of the SDSM General Secretary, Ljupco Nikolovski. The news widespread in a short period of time, and the idea was already created that now the former Director of the Clinic was in touch with an even larger number of people than those over 200 of whom the Minister of Health was already reporting. Although Nikolovski published a denial and denied that the doctor was at his wedding, the damage had already been done.

Photographs were used with the aim of creating an idea that the doctor was there. The doctor couldn’t be seen on any of the photos. If we look at the photos from the wedding, even analyze them in detail, the doctor will not be seen on the photos.

The most published and republished photo is this mosaic of photos from the wedding among which a photo of the doctor at her workplace has been added. It is obvious that the doctor Nina Caca Biljanovska cannot be found on any of the photos from the wedding ceremony.

It all began with a news story published by Tv21, an unconfirmed information used by pro-opposition media in order to spread it everywhere. The news is now deleted by the portal Tv21. The news was corrected immediately but the damage was already done.

Media outlets such as Dokaz.mk, Kurir.mk, Netpress.com, Skopjeinfo.mk, Lider.mk, Puls24.mk, News33.tv spread the misinformation on their portals, referring to the Tv21 news, and added fake photos of the doctor’s alleged presence at the wedding.

Not even the closest family of Dr. Nina Caca Biljanovska was spared. A photo of her sister, Judge Margarita Caca Nikolovska, a prominent government critic at a time when the Republic of North Macedonia was considered a captivated state, was posted on the portal Magazin.mk

A text was also posted on the portal Netpress.com stating that the doctor was a “protégé” of the Minister of Health, referring to a video released by Filipce in which she was presented as a good example of a doctor in the public health sector.

The following is a snapshot of how the misinformation was shared on Facebook. The misinformation posted on these 7 portals is shared on 25 Facebook pages and according to their number of followers, it has reached a maximum of 1,736,558 potential followers. The range, or parameters, of news activity ranges from 34,731 to 112,876 of the total number of followers.