Darvin Murić, editor-in-chief of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) Raskrinkavanje platform, said that political actors saw that disinformation is a free way to influence voters and that in the last three years we have seen an increase in disinformation in the pre-election period.
Murić said this at the second panel of the regional conference "Are there fair elections in the era of democracy?" organized by CDT.
"Political actors have realized that they can easily influence voters by spreading misinformation, which is especially evident in the pre-election period," the conference was told, according to the announcement of the Center for Democratic Transition.
Murić is reported to have said that during the last election cycles in Montenegro, there was a trend of using disinformation and manipulating voters.
"In the last three years, we had an increase in disinformation in the pre-election period. We had a situation with a pandemic, which is why we were all more present in the virtual space and more exposed to disinformation," he emphasized.
Murić explained that the presidential elections were marked by the practice of publishing fake surveys, of which, as he stated, there were dozens.
He added that disinformation is spread through a network of bots, that political actors are often irresponsible, and that Montenegro needs strategic solutions for the emergence of disinformation.
Speaking about the results of SeeCheck, which registers fake news on Meta company platforms, Murić pointed out that the members of the Network have achieved a change in the way information is published.
"The first and most visible result of the work of fact-checking organizations is that tabloids create false information, but do not publish it on Facebook pages. We have the ability to reduce the reach of their posts on social networks. When you work quickly and responsibly, you contribute to change and make them admit that they publish incorrect news," he said.
The representative of the European Partnership for Democracy, Dragan Kremer, assessed that the informative role of the media at the present moment has significantly weakened.
"We have come to the point that small online media that practically have no employees can compete with them. We have a problem with how the content ends up in the media. The content that the media increasingly downloads from social networks is not news, that way misinformation gains credibility, and readers perceive such content as serious information. The media has degraded the standards of the profession and thereby degraded the definition of news," Kremer said.
Speaking about the importance of fact-checking organizations, Kremer pointed out that their work has a significant social function.
"I can understand people who say that they lose trust in the media because fact-checkers point out their omissions and fake news. But on the other hand, I see another important fact, precisely because of the work of the fact-checking community, we begin to appreciate true information to a greater extent "Fact-checking has a very important social function and shows how we can defend ourselves against incoming fake news," he pointed out.
Jelena Berković from Faktograf said that social networks provided freedom for the spread of misinformation and fake news.
As Berković said, the importance of the fact-checking organization is reflected in encouraging critical awareness among individuals.
"For me, as a journalist, verifying information is the first step in publishing it. If traditional media do not do this, then they are not doing what is their original purpose in the world. The more critical we, as consumers, act, the better it will be for the media "We are like little lonely fighters for what are the basic principles of journalism, with a mission to return journalism to newsrooms," said Berković.
Head of the board of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), Clara Jimenez Cruz, said that disinformation gained momentum during the pandemic and grew into new narratives.
"As the pandemic raged, disinformation grew into other narratives, such as the denial of climate change. Societies have not become resilient enough, artificial intelligence also contributes to this. It is a problem that is only on the rise," she said.
She pointed out that the new legislation at the level of the European Union, which will, among other things, deal with the issue of disinformation, and that fact-checkers help large companies to comply with the obligations to which that regulation will oblige them.
The regional conference "Are there fair elections in the era of misinformation?" is organized by the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) in cooperation with the regional network of fact-checkers SeeCheck, with the support of the Embassy of the United States of America in Podgorica and the European Union.
Bonus video:
