Original title: The state will receive a donation of free tests, and the citizens will pay 1,000 denars for each!
By combining two different statements for two different events, the portal disinforms the citizens that the free tests will be charged 1,000 denars, but in actuality they will be free.
On November 2nd , the Kurir portal published an article titled: The state will receive a donation of free tests, and the citizens will pay 1,000 denars each!. The same content with an identical title was published by the Netpress portal. The content of the text is a combination of statements of the Minister of Health, Venko Filipce, in a guest appearance on Sitel TV, and the director of the Health Center, Viktor Isjanovski, regarding the rapid tests that will be applied. The portal places these statements on the public “packed” together, in the form of disinformation. Thus, it is a conclusion / claim that the donated 13,000 tests will be charged 1,000 denars, which would cost the citizens a total of 13 million denars or 210 thousand euros.
The portal disinforms the citizens. The statement of Minister Filipce from the guest appearance on Sitel TV that a donation of 13,000 tests will arrive at the Ministry of Health next week and that it is related to a previous statement by the director of the Health Center, Viktor Isjanovski, on October 29th , when he announced that the rapid tests procured by Abot ”Will cost 1,000 denars. What the portal used to confuse the citizens is that Isjanovski talks about the 4,000 tests purchased from the Health Center Skopje, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, and not about the donated tests.
Namely, on November 3rd , the Ministry of Health announced an official statement for the donation of 13,000 tests from two companies, which through the algorithm of family doctors will be free for all those patients who will need fast testing. The health center has already agreed with the supplier to withdraw the previously purchased tests and to use only the free tests. Persons who have already been tested during the previous day will be refunded.
The presentation of unverified and unconfirmed information, and premature conclusions and assumptions, leads to public confusion. In the case of these disinforming articles, public dissatisfaction and mistrust in the country’s healthcare system is encouraged.
