URGENT MEASURES ARE NEEDED TO PREVENT FAKE NEWS

Fake news during a pandemic. Misinformation, half-truths, distorted facts, news spread faster than the coronavirus. Titles such as “A Harvard professor sold the virus to China”, “Bill Gates will put microchips in people through vaccines.”, “5G network killed the sparrows”. All with one purpose, to instill mistrust in the institutions and the system in general. NATO also offered assistance against threats of disinformation through US Ambassador Kate Hutchinson. The idea is to form a team that will prepare the media to discourage such campaigns.

Rosana Aleksoska, head of the project “Fight against fake news and narratives” in the Citizen’s Association MOST, explains about this and the risk of fake news.

North Macedonia, especially with the entry into NATO and the start of negotiations for the European Union, must build appropriate mechanisms to protect its own citizens from such misinformation.

My recommendation is that such a NATO team will be of great benefit to the state and the citizens, and I recommend that the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and NATO consider this opportunity and use it. Aggressive disinformation campaigns can also cause material damage and security problems.

Also, what we are noticing is the fight of the narratives, the role of Russia and China is emphasized and glorified, and the role and contribution of the United States, NATO and the European Union is underestimated. For these reasons, I would appeal to the citizens to be a little more patient, not to listen to half-truths or half-claims and to build their own decisions based on them.

At the end of the day, the citizens and all of us are the victims of these disinformation narratives and these disinformation campaigns.

You can watch the full interview at the following link.