On 1 March 2022, FN Program Manager Rosana Aleksoska was guest on the TV show “24 analiza – In the misery of war, can truth overcome lie?” on TV 24. In her appearance, among the other things, Aleksoska made the following points:
First and most important, we have to go back in order to understand Russian information operations. What preceded the entire invasion and unseen aggression of Russia over Ukraine is a well-known tactic, which has been previously used by Russia. It used similar operations and disinformation when it occupied part of Georgia in 2008, as well as in 2014, when it occupied Crimea and Donbas. That which is happening now was announced, and Russia did not succeed to provide justification for these aggressions conducted over civilians and civilian objects. Namely, in the period before the invasion they claimed that they won’t attack Ukraine, they claimed that the Russian minority was threatened and these are false and fake narratives. In example, in the period 17-18 February, the so-called leaders of the so-called self-proclaimed people’s republics who are just installations of the Putin’s regime, called for an immediate evacuation of the population. In the video that was shared on their networks on Telegram, they stated that the evacuation started as of that day, since the situation escalated, while in reality the meta-data of the videos shows that they were recorded two days before, on 16 February. This is just one of the examples that were debunked and which show that there were pre-conceived scenarios or so-called false flags.
This is not a special war between the West and Russia. Simply, what we witness today is a brutal aggression over Ukraine. This is an attempt by Russia to impose its own views on an independent and sovereign country. One of the basic principles of democracy and the democratic open societies also enshrined in the UN Charter, is that each country has the right to choose its own way and to choose the manner in which it will protect its citizens. And here we come to the crucial moment, i.e. to the truth. The fact is that at the moment Ukraine fights for the entire democratic world and it was very normal and expected for the democratic Western societies to help. This is a battle between the democratic and open societies, the security and stability that the world enjoys after the Second World War, against authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
In the Western democratic societies, there are media from the entire spectrum of the editorial policy, journalists are free, and there is no repression. On the other hand, when we speak about Russia and the Russian propaganda, we have to know that everything is staged, everything is controlled. There are no independent media, there are no civil society organizations, while the opposition is either dead or in prison. All of those who are against Putin’s regime are marked as enemies. Is there a democratic country from the West that uses these means?
When it comes to Russian media, we see a hyper production of news. Out of one event, or for one issue, 5-6 pieces of information are being produced and I think that this should stop, since the right and freedom of speech does not mean the right to lie. Also, we should be careful about the news that are taken over from the Serbian media.
North Macedonia is a young democracy and it is vulnerable to foreign malign influence that comes from Russia and China and contributes towards information distortion of the online space. You as television channels, have editorial boards, pay journalists, pay editors etc., while somebody with a cup of coffee produces fake news all day. We have documented this information distortion several times and it is serious. There are many analyses of cases when Russian sources are predominantly used, while the other sources of information are absent. Additionally, this causes division in our multiethnic society. We should not forget the Russian interest in the Balkans, and this is constant maintaining of frozen conflicts, since, being unable to offer the citizens what they need – security, safety, stability, democracy – it has to produce crises.
Some of the portals in Serbia are under strong Russian influence, while Serbia also has its own interests. When we speak about the region and about the frozen conflicts, we should not relativize and we should not equate the intervention of NATO on Kosovo with what Russia does today in Eastern Ukraine. The only equal sign between the two cases is that both bloody wars were started by dictators who are named Milošević and Putin.
The most important thing, at the moment in Ukraine people die, civilians die, children die, there are 500.000 refugees… I sympathize deeply with the Ukrainian people, and all of this is because of the brutal aggression of Putin. We should not forget that the most powerful weapon in Putin’s hands are the Russian media. In order to show solidarity and sympathy, we should immediately ban and stop with everything that comes from the Russian channels, since their main goal in the next phase of this war will be the moral destruction of the Ukrainian people, psychological operations, psychological influence. None of what we saw these days was accidental, and to state that the President Zelenskyy left the country while he is there, is a lie. What impact has this on the people there? If we want and if we fight for a democratic society, we have to fight for these basic values as well. The aggressor has to be clearly named, we have to stop with every kind of relativizations, since in this society the facts and the truth must be told once and for all as they are.
The entire show can be seen on the following link.
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