Skopje, 31 May 2022 (MIA) – The fight against disinformation is also a fight for the protection of fundamental freedom of speech, thought, conscience and conviction. Instead of there being an echo chamber, we need to build a democratic ambience in which we will reach the truth through differing opinions and outlooks, and not propaganda. The truth is a basis of trust among people and trust in institutions. Without it, there’s no progress, said President Stevo Pendarovski addressing a conference titled “Dealing with Disinformation in North Macedonia”, organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation. Disinformation, he stressed, undermines democratic values. Disinformation campaigns polarize public debate, negatively affect political processes and undermine the citizens’ trust in the institutions. “Disinformation can destabilize the country. The existence of a societal, systemic, media and personal resistance against it is the best way to protect ourselves from it. We also need a joint approach on a national level with a consensus of the key political factors to manage it. We have to build a culture of critical thinking and support media literacy initiatives, not just for young people, because adults are also susceptible to disinformation,” Pendarovski said. The President called the findings from the Metamorphosis research “astonishing” – over 60% of Macedonian citizens believe that the global powers created Covid-19 for economic and political benefit. 50% believe that the world’s elites created the virus for population control, and over 45% don’t believe that the virus exists. “This disinformation cost many of our people their health, and it cost 9,300 people their lives,” Pendarovski said. In addition to the three driving forces of disinformation globally, Pendarovski believes there are two more in the country, namely the stalled EU integration process and the fact that those stalled integration efforts made the country focus on nothing but itself instead of essential European reforms. “The people are tired of waiting. The Metamorphosis research findings show that the majority of our citizens want our country to become part of the EU, but not at the cost of compromise with the neighboring countries. Secondly, due to the stalled integrations, we spent years focusing only on ourselves, which negatively affects the functionality of institutions and the rule of law in this country which creates fertile soil for the spread of misinformation,” Pendarovski said. Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski spoke at the closing event via video link, saying that all the recommendations from the conference will be taken by the government as a substantial contribution towards achieving the common goal of building a multisectoral approach for an appropriate response to the threats and consequences caused by misinformation. “Disinformation aims to undermine all democratic values our society rests on. The world of democracy is under constant assault from centers of propaganda which aim to cause fear and insecurity in the population, undermine democracy and to spread the influence of third parties in a dishonorable, manipulative way that harms public interest and the wellbeing of the citizens,” Kovachevski said. He stressed that the government firmly stands against disinformation by constantly establishing a partnership with NATO, Facebook, Google, independent fact checkers, local institutions and media organizations to do so. “Truth and maximum transparency are our main values in this battle, as well as a system of quick dismantling of lies in order to make the further spread of misinformation harder. We have to be aware that the fight against disinformation won’t end soon. Our approach and response to it must constantly improve so that we can follow the regressive forces’ every invention. The government remains a partner and an active participant in the fight against misinformation,” Kovachevski emphasized. Fani Karanfilova-Panovska, executive director of the Open Society Macedonia Foundation, said in her address that disinformation is an omnipresent part of politics in every Western Balkan country without exception. The spread of disinformation “is becoming a bigger safety risk to the states and institutions, which in turn affects the citizens’ safety and wellbeing”. “Mapping out disinformation and counter-disinformation in the region over the past couple of years reveals several key processes and phenomena that were a challenge and motivation for the spread of disinformation – external challenges related to the EU’s credibility, connected to the enlargement process, the aspiration and NATO membership of the region’s countries, as well as the cooperation and partnership of the region’s countries with the USA, then the Covid-19 pandemic, election cycles and referendums conducted over the past few years, and the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine recently,” Karanfilova-Panovska said. She added that all actors have an equal role in dealing with the harmful influence of misinformation, above all the institutions of the system, the media and reporters, the political parties and the civil society. Executive director of the Metamorphosis Foundation, Bardil Jashari, said that the availability of new technologies and the internet has made disinformation more dangerous, and their influence directly causes all progressive democratic processes in the country and region to regress. “Only by making decisions based on true information can we improve our quality of life and the climate in our country in general, and to strengthen democracy. That’s exactly why I think that cooperation in all sectors of society is extremely important,” Jashari stressed. dk/ba/