The Prime Minister at his press conference on 21.12.2020 presented the key projects and programs that will occupy the attention and time of the Government next year. These large and important, domestic, Macedonian projects are part of the government's "Action 21 - for European standards at home!"The 10 priorities of the Government Action-21 projects and programs also include the Stop Disinformation program. Namely, it is a great obligation and responsibility to oppose disinformation and prevent the damage caused by fake news.The government will deal with disinformation through the following mechanisms:
Joint fight with professional media and civil society organizations against disinformation, hate speech and hybrid attacks
Protecting the public interest through timely and accurate information
Joint fight with NATO against cyber attacks
In that regard, the Prime Minister announced intensified activities in the coming period, extensive consultations with media workers and civil society and even more serious fight against disinformation, hate speech and other forms of hybrid threats against democracy in our society, within the Plan for a decisive action against the spread of disinformation and against attacks on democracy.This plan also drafts a protocol for crisis communications between the central government communication service and the ministries, which is of great importance in the time of the crisis we are going through, in dealing with fake news, which were widely published through quasi-media.Such tendencies, as the Prime Minister emphasized, are recognized by the news about the vaccine against COVID-19 in order to cause distrust among the citizens and to devalue the strong efforts of the institutions and doctors in the fight against the pandemic.These attempts will be exposed as disinformation in cooperation with fact checkers and the media will be provided with the most transparent access to relevant sources and information for creating objective media content of public interest.The Government undertakes as an obligation to protect the public interest with everything in its competence, in order for the population to be fully, timely and accurately informed about the ways of protection from COVID-19, including the vaccination process.As part of the Stop Disinformation program, progress has been made in the field of defense against cyber-attacks by completing the procedure for harmonization of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Defense and NATO, and the document is ready for signing, which will enable a coordinated response to allies in case of cyber-attacks.As early as 2018, the Government increased its efforts in this area by adopting the
National Strategy for Cyber Security 2018-2022 and preparing an
Action Plan aimed at defining the steps in the implementation of the first National Strategy for Cyber Security of the Republic of Macedonia 2018- 2022, including the main activities needed to strengthen national cybersecurity capacities.Another important segment in the Stop Disinformation program is the media literacy that will become part of the teaching in order to help the younger generations to be the strongest opponents of fake news.With the support and cooperation of the strategic partners, the Government strives for North Macedonia to be a leader in finding solutions in the fight against disinformation that attack the whole world, and side by side with the partners from the West and NATO, to adequately respond to this harmful phenomenon.
