PODGORICA – The Western Balkans region is becoming increasingly vulnerable to foreign information manipulation and the region’s resilience remains low, the EU-WB education conference was told today to the media 2023 organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro.
“Information manipulation and interference pose a huge threat to our democracies, as they aim to capture people’s hearts and minds and cloud their judgment and ability to understand,” said Oana Cristina Popa, EU Ambassador to Montenegro.
Popa also noted that malicious disinformation campaigns, particularly in the World Bank region, combined with the technological advancements of the Internet and social media, show the urgent need for an effective response to these challenges.
She also mentioned that the European External Action Service (EEAS) has been diligently monitoring, analyzing and combating disinformation since 2015, gaining substantial experience, knowledge and understanding of third country efforts to influence the environment of the information.
“Our studies have shown that the Western Balkans region is increasingly vulnerable to foreign information manipulation, and this is why the fight against disinformation has officially become part of the Commission’s latest enlargement package European,” explained Popa.
She added that resilience in the region remains low, in part due to low media literacy, low trust in institutions, limited independent and professional journalism and low levels of media freedom. media.
“Disinformation is as old as the media. But it is particularly dangerous when it aims to derail democratic processes and spread distrust in institutions,” said Tamara VujovićMinister of Culture and Media of Montenegro.
According to Vujović, the phenomenon of disinformation is not only a problem of the Western Balkans but also of larger systems and countries. She said this phenomenon is present in all segments of media, so recognizing false information and verifying facts represents the basic form of literacy today.
“Democracy cannot be taken for granted but must be invested in daily,” Vujović said, adding that it is necessary to expand media policy and improve sanctions for media outlets that violate the standards of professional journalism .
Vujović also spoke about the threat of strategic disinformation that leads to the control of social processes and represents a legal problem for democracy, as it abuses freedoms and tends to destroy them from within.
Tamara Brankovicdeputy director of the Crta program of Serbia, said that information manipulation is a mechanism of government in Serbia, adding that information manipulation is broadcast daily on mainstream channels that the state uses to create a kind parallel reality, control the public sphere and preserve power in Serbia.
Branković explained that in Serbia, information manipulation tends to “mix” different types of narratives that are linked to the point of defaming anyone with any democratic intent.
“The problem of disinformation is the problem of malicious influences of information,” said Milica Kovačević, program director at the CDT of Montenegro, and added that the problem of malicious information influences has not been recognized at different levels in the Western Balkan countries. She explained that none of the countries have a satisfactory legal framework, strategies or institutions.
“We need a systemic approach which must involve the cooperation of all sectors of society, including the government,” stressed Filip Stojanovski, Director of Partnership and Resource Development at Metamorphosis of North Macedonia. He said that the government of North Macedonia, unlike other governments in the region, expresses political will to start with this approach.
Karina Urbanavičiūtė, The project manager of Debunk.org in Lithuania said that threats of foreign interference in Lithuania come from the same source as threats in the Western Balkan countries, namely Russia.
She explained that people who can be described as “agents of chaos”, those who promote pro-Kremlin narratives, are trying to insert themselves into the political discourse and become political candidates and established political parties.
“This is where there are no guarantees, because this is part of democracy. This is part of democratic values. Everyone can do it. And this is where we see that this is what our adversaries have exploited. They exploit freedom of expression. They exploit other democratic values. So we need to be aware of this as a society,” Urbanavičiūtė concluded.