Conference: “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia”, June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski, CC BY
Electronic disinformation spreads and no one is immune to it. They pose a threat to societies. The fight against disinformation requires partnership between institutions and civil society. This was emphasized at the opening of the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” organized by the Presidential Center for Political Education and the Metamorphosis Foundation.
Speaking at the conference opening were President Stevo Pendarovski, Dirk Jan Kop, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to North Macedonia, Bardhyl Jashari, Executive Director of the Metamorphosis Foundation, and Prof. Aleksandar Lj. Spasov, PhD, the Chair of the Program Council of the Presidential Center for Political Education, Advisor to the President for Internal Affairs, Foreign Policy and Constitutional Matters, and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus”, UKIM.
“Disinformation as a means to provoke or deepen societal divisions, or as a psychological warfare tool, is neither a new nor an unfamiliar phenomenon. It has been present in all societies in different historical periods and has been used by various groups within and beyond a given society. In this sense, democratic societies are particularly vulnerable because the pluralism of opinions and attitudes, as well as the freedom of expression that includes freedom of verbal dissent, are the essence of democratic societies and the way decisions are made within them,” emphasized President Pendarovski in his opening speech.
President Stevo Pendarovski at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
He stated that all kinds of information, except for those of a security nature, should be accessible to the public because the truth is the best weapon against disinformation and lies.
“Education is key for the long-term resilience of Macedonian society. We need to incorporate content related to media literacy in the educational system, and I recommend the inclusion of political education in line with democratic values in the regular education system. The Presidential Center for Political Education has already initiated such an initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Bureau for Development of Education, and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy from the United Kingdom. Tomorrow, the publication with clear guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of policies in this segment will be launched,” emphasized the President.
Ambassador Jan Kop reflected on the shared interest between the Netherlands and North Macedonia, which is clear: both countries desire stability and prosperity.
“Therefore, in addition to NATO, the state should also become a member of the EU,” said the Ambassador.
Dutch Ambassador Dirk Jan Kop at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
There have been numerous disinformation campaigns since the beginning of Russian aggression, the Dutch Ambassador Dirk Jan Kop reminded.
“The narrative is reinforced by local actors for short-term political gains or more likes on social media. This year, we celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries. What has remained consistent over the years is that the Netherlands is the most loyal friend and strongest supporter of North Macedonia’s EU membership. We are pleased to support the Metamorphosis Foundation, which works on projects addressing misinformation and propaganda coming from extremist actors in the region. If we focus solely on fact-checking and debunking, we will always be one step behind. Building societal resilience to information requires national guidelines and legislative regulations. People should not believe everything they read; students should question their teachers, and citizens should question the authorities. We need more critical, analytical and lateral thinkers,” emphasized the Dutch Ambassador.
Bardhyl Jashari, The Director of Metamorphosis, highlighted that since 2011, the Foundation has recognized this problem and started with fact-checking initiatives.
Bardhyl Jashari, the Director of Metamorphosis, at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
“As time went on, we started seeing that disinformation is a very serious problem. It is a security issue and should be treated as such. In dealing with such complex societal problems, we believe that we should all work together to find solutions and reduce the damage caused by disinformation campaigns. We need to create a system that will minimize harmful influences. Therefore, this collaborative work is crucial. The role of non-governmental organizations is important; we need to focus on citizen education, capacity building, analysis, and research that will give even greater credibility to what we do. We expect state institutions to be more transparent and not leave room for manipulation. The academic community and the media should adhere to their standards. The mission is not impossible if we work together and focus on the fight against disinformation,” emphasized Director Jashari.
At the conference, in his speech, Professor Aleksandar Spasov stated that we need to combat propaganda and establish a system.
“Propaganda and disinformation have been living with us for a long time. Their influence is strong both on a geopolitical level, and on an internal policy level. It requires not only a system crafted by state authorities, but also a societal resistance system. The most effective way to combat propaganda is if society itself can recognize stereotypes, prejudices, lies, and truth,” said Professor Spasov.
Professor Aleksandar Spasov at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
Within the framework of the conference, a session titled “Current State of Affairs and Challenges Related to the Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia” was held, featuring speeches from Erolld Musliu, the Director of the Intelligence Agency, Mile Boshnjakovski, the Secretary-General of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, Filip Stojanovski, Partnerships and Resource Development Director at the Metamorphosis Foundation, and Biljana Georgievska, Executive Director of the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia.
The fight against disinformation should not be viewed as a threat to freedom of speech or censorship because we are not talking about naively disseminated news but rather a state-organized and targeted process of manipulating public opinion and exerting pressure on decision-makers.
This was emphasized, among other things, by Erolld Musliu, the Director of the Intelligence Agency, during the panel discussion titled “Current State of Affairs and Challenges Related to the Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” as part of the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” organized by the Presidential Center for Political Education and the Metamorphosis Foundation.
Musliu warned that the country would be targeted by disinformation propaganda regarding constitutional changes, the church issue, and the 2024 elections.
Erolld Musliu at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
“The Kremlin utilizes its diplomatic capacities in the region to control and direct the “tools” – pro-Russian NGOs, church clergy, political entities, journalists, media outlets, internet portals, and individuals with influence on social media, who assist in the dissemination of Russian hybrid propaganda in the region. The Russian hybrid strategy designed for the Western Balkans and North Macedonia is based on exploiting “windows of opportunity.” Hence, unresolved issues and delayed Euro-Atlantic integrations provide an opportunity for Russia to be an effective malign actor in the region,” stated Musliu.
The Director of the Intelligence Agency further mentioned that there is an ongoing classical operation of reflexive control in the country through a disinformation campaign related to the process of acceptance of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric.
The Director of the Intelligence Agency also announced that there is Chinese influence in the country.
“I can say that there are indications that local media outlets are being paid to publish texts of strategic significance for China, but with regional and local adaptability,” Musliu said.
Mile Boshnjakovski, the Secretary-General of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, emphasized that the media have lost their role in shaping public opinion and that social media are now dominant.
“I believe that social media have predominantly taken over the role of the media. This means they do not function as traditional media; they are media according to all definitions of what media actually are in terms of conveying information important to citizens,” said Boshnjakovski.
Mile Boshnjakovski at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski.
He provided an example of how a social media post triggered a wave of disinformation. It involved a campaign familiar to the public, alleging that migrants from Middle Eastern countries would be relocated to North Macedonia.
“It is true that North Macedonia will build a centre for asylum seekers because the old one was in ruins and still is. From this information that the Republic of North Macedonia will construct a new centre for asylum seekers, traditional media created the narrative that we will bring in migrants, millions of migrants. Then, after a few days, this escalated into a national campaign in which signatures were being collected [against allowing migrants to enter]. However, the question is simple – who would enter? It’s absurd. Today, disinformation no longer needs traditional media to give it shameful support. Today, it reaches the majority of the public immediately,” said Boshnjakovski, emphasizing that the country is vulnerable to disinformation campaigns, particularly given the political polarization within the country.
Filip Stojanovski, Partnership and Resource Development Director at Metamorphosis Foundation shared his experience with the Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub project.
“The main goal of our project is to uncover all harmful foreign influences expressed through disinformation and similar phenomena, ranging from propaganda to various media and political manipulations. We aim to understand their flow, their origin. To achieve that, it is crucial to build capacity. In the past, only a small number of factors in our society dealt with disinformation. Therefore, at the regional level, we primarily established a network of partners composed of organizations that have been involved in fact-checking, as well as other organizations focusing on media, youth, and think tanks analyzing security and other aspects. There hasn’t been much collaboration between these two areas, which is why we aimed to bridge that gap,” said Stojanovski.
Filip Stojanovski at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo by Vancho Dzambaski
He added that every organization from the countries in the region is working on building national forms of cooperation with other civil organizations and state institutions. From a regional perspective, they collaborate in uncovering cross-border disinformation that adapts to local forms and is highly damaging.
“Such disinformation is related to interethnic relations in our country. In neighbouring countries where interethnic issues with the Albanian community have been observed, they are presented differently than they actually unfold in our country. We also get an additional perspective from Serbia, exploiting malicious local actors who portray certain ethnic structures in a negative light. This creates a vicious cycle or spiral. We started with our capacities at Metamorphosis. Fact-checking is indeed essential, but it is not enough,” Stojanovski added.
Biljana Georgievska, Executive Director of the Council of Media Ethics of North Macedonia, emphasized that self-regulation has potential, and across Europe, these councils are not quitting, but finding ways to motivate the public to submit as many complaints as possible regarding media content.
“Self-regulation is an excellent tool in the hands of citizens, institutions, and non-governmental organizations to resist arbitrariness in the media, ignorance, intentional and unintentional mistakes. Currently, this is the best monitoring of media work, as they voluntarily strive to unite for quality and influential journalism, for higher standards, without interference from the authorities or political and business elites. Self-regulation promotes quality journalism to protect freedom of expression and, in a broader context, to enhance resistance for democracy in society. Self-regulation is defined as a commitment by media professionals, meaning they strive for quality journalism to maintain dialogue with the public,” said Georgievska.
Biljana Georgievska at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
She added that the experience from complaints and the work of the Complaints Commission at CMEM shows that among the hundreds of media outlets, mainly online, some do not accept this self-regulation mechanism and strongly reject offers for mediation or correction of errors.
“Self-regulation must be promoted in the future even more, raising awareness among citizens that media outlets are not toys and journalists should not be mere microphone carriers or invisible copy-paste people. It is definitely necessary to invest in educating citizens for greater freedom of expression,” Georgievska added.
At the last session titled “Solutions and Next Steps – Recommendations for Collective Action,” Elida Zulbeari, Project Manager at the Metamorphosis Foundation, Svetlana Siljanoska, Associate for Communications and Public Relations of NATO and Security Issues in the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, Petra Balažić, representative of the “Center for European Perspective” from the Republic of Slovenia, and Rosana Aleksoska, representative of the Citizens’ Association – MOST, addressed the audience.
Building resilience to disinformation is a multidimensional issue, ranging from national security to advancing media freedoms, combating corruption, and strengthening the role of civil society as a driver of democratization. Inclusiveness is therefore necessary. This was emphasized by Elida Zulbeari, Project Manager at the Metamorphosis Foundation.
The next step, as she mentioned, is to transform the recommendations into joint activities.
“This primarily means consultations with all stakeholders to ultimately produce a specific document – whether it will be a strategy or some other document, we will see in the end – a document that provides a framework for the fight against disinformation and foreign influences through disinformation campaigns. As stakeholders in the process, we propose that the process be as open and consultative as possible, with several interactions to ensure that no one is left out of it because this is not a process of Metamorphosis, the Government, or AJM; it is a collective process,” Zulbeari said.
Elida Zulbeari at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski.
Zulbeari added that the document concluding the process should outline the responsibilities of each societal actor and what they need to do to contribute to reducing these harmful influences, which, she said, “cannot simply go away.”
“Our plan is to continue this process through a systemic approach to building a culture of critical thinking and public dialogue at all levels, starting from the educational system, the relationship between institutions and stakeholders in all sectors, as well as at the family and individual levels. Additionally, depending on resources, we would like to invite representatives from more developed democratic countries with high levels of media literacy to come here and share their examples in order to help us adapt our approach and take what works without jeopardizing freedom of expression and media independence,” said Zulbeari.
However, there is no exact recipe for combating disinformation that is known to be effective. Every society deals with such challenges in its own way, with varying degrees of success in combating disinformation, said Svetlana Siljanoska, the Associate for Communications and Public Relations of NATO and Security Issues in the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia.
According to her, before considering solutions to the problem, the goals of those who “create disinformation in a conscious, intentional and organized fashion and with the use of a budget” should be understood.
“One goal is to undermine trust in institutions. Another goal is to discourage citizens’ desire or need to participate in democratic processes. We see the first goal through the low trust demonstrated towards all societal actors, including us as institutions. We see the second goal through the refusal to participate in democratic processes such as referendums or censuses. Democratic institutions have the desire and goal for citizens to participate in democratic processes as they should in a developed country,” emphasized Siljanoska.
Svetlana Siljanoska at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
Svetlana Siljanoska at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023; Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
Petra Balažić at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023 / Photo: Vancho Dzambaski
Balažić also stated that the majority – over 50 per cent of the citizens in the Western Balkans get informed through domestic media, 44 per cent through friends and family, and 13 per cent trust their governments.
“This means that if there is disinformation that is widespread in one country in the Western Balkans, those people who believe in this disinformation could share it with their friends in other countries in the Western Balkans. That information circulates. The last bit of unfortunate news is that 55 per cent of the citizens in the Western Balkans do not trust their governments, which raises questions about the effectiveness of public communication,” Balažić said, adding that it is in everyone’s interest to strengthen regional resilience to disinformation through collaborative efforts.
She pointed out North Macedonia as a positive example of a country that has taken significant steps forward in the fight against disinformation. A possible solution, according to her, is for the Western Balkan countries to exchange information and best practices and learn from each other, citing organizations and fact-checking media with cross-border collaboration.
“Another aspect is ensuring intersectoral cooperation. The problem is that in the Western Balkans, we have difficulties in ensuring collaboration with the entire society. It’s hard to get governments and media to sit at the same table,” added Balažić.
Narratives are particularly important in the upcoming process of combating disinformation, and understanding that battle and learning how to cope with it will be a parallel process, said Rosana Aleksoska, Program Manager for combating fake news and narratives at the Citizens’ Association MOST.
“Why is the narrative important? Because there are certain misconceptions, perceptions, and false beliefs that enable disinformation to find its way and have an impact on part of the population in North Macedonia, and on the Balkans in general, especially the Orthodox population. This means that this process is not unidirectional – the more disinformation, information distortions, and influence there is, the deeper these deeply rooted misconceptions will become,” emphasized Aleksoska.
The process is challenging, and it should involve the educational and political systems, the media, and other actors.
“We need a comprehensive societal process in which we will first try to understand, and secondly, accurately define the enemy,” said Aleksoska, adding that disinformation is just one of the tools of Russia’s harmful malign influence.
Rosana Aleksoska at the conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia,” June 20, 2023 / Photo: Vancho Dzambaski.
“Yes, the goal is to create distortions and divisions, to undermine trust in institutions, in the media, in civil organizations, in our allies. However, the other very important goal is to flood the information process with so much diverse data that people become confused at some point and don’t know what to believe,” added Aleksoska.
She applauded regional initiatives but emphasized that regional cooperation should not come at the expense of Euro-Atlantic integrations.
“I appeal to everyone to abandon the concept of being detached because the West – today, that’s us. We are the West. Euro-Atlantic integrations should not suffer because of regional initiatives,” said Aleksoska.
The conference “Building Societal Resilience to the Harmful Influence of Disinformation in the Republic of North Macedonia” concluded with the session “Solutions and Next Steps – Recommendations for Collective Action,” moderated by Despina Kovachevska, a media monitoring specialist at the Metamorphosis Foundation. Representatives from state institutions, civil society, and the media discussed some of the most important issues brought about by the fight against disinformation.
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