We have seen that the Western Balkans are becoming vulnerable to misinformation. Fighting disinformation is a complex process that requires the involvement of the entire community. That's why we organize this and similar conferences, and that's why you're here, said the head of the EU Delegation in Montenegro, Oana Kristina Popa, at the Conference on EU Media Coverage - Western Balkans, in Podgorica.
She said that the tactics, techniques and mechanisms of manipulation undermine trust in the media and risk compromising the community, and that the conference is an opportunity to see what the best mechanisms and approaches are in the fight against misinformation.
She added that the European External Action Service (EEAS), which organized the conference, has been carefully monitoring, analyzing and countering disinformation since 2015.
"Since then, we have developed a range of tools to fight misinformation, interference and information manipulation - from regulating large technology companies and providing fact-checking platforms to investing in media literacy initiatives," added Popa. In Montenegro, the EU financed a media fund for the fight against disinformation, we worked with NGOs to protect against it, we encouraged the government to get involved... Our democracies are based on accurate information, that's why the fight against disinformation is important," said Popa. at the opening of the Conference.
Minister of Culture and Media Tamara Vujović said that Montenegro is exposed to a large number of contents.
"When we take the Montenegrin context, a small market, a large number of media, the same language teaching as the region... we are exposed to a large number of content. We were at the bottom of the list of media literacy, we believe in conspiracy theories. However, the latest research shows that the level of media literacy among children is increasing, which is the result of numerous projects," said Vujović.
And she agrees that disinformation is especially dangerous when it aims to undermine democratic processes and trust in institutions.
"The phenomenon of disinformation is one of the basic problems of today, present in all segments, especially on social networks".
Vujović said that not all media are subject to media laws, and that we are not only under the influence of algorithms, but also capital.
"If we don't have a strong legal framework, if we don't follow European regulations, we don't have an act on digital markets and services, we are lagging behind and we will have consequences. "We have to be very quick in creating media laws because we have to get newspapers," Vujović said.
She said that the Government is trying to ensure that the laws have precise wording in order to obtain a broad consensus.
"We want to achieve this with a set of media laws that were prepared by previous administrations over the course of 18 months. Some laws have been harmonized, we will check some again because we have seen neuralgic points", explained Vujović.
She said that democracy cannot be taken for granted and that the threats are more and more numerous and sophisticated.
That is why, says Vujović, we need to work on recognizing the media under the influence of the authorities, toughen the penalties for those who violate standards, and give more support to those who work to spread media literacy.
"We have a huge number of online publications, portals that are not subject to the regulation of the Electronic Media Agency to a large extent. They can be sued, but those processes are slow and inefficient. Conversely, traditional media are not often the source of misinformation, and we have to commend that. There are media that were founded to spread misinformation and target opponents, such as Udar. It is important to create an atmosphere in Montenegro that misinformation and hate speech are unacceptable," Vujović said.
She added that it is necessary to think about measures and models for media literacy to enter elementary schools.
In Montenegro, the problem of disinformation continues to be denied
At the panel "The 78 billion dollar question: Building resistance to information manipulation and interference from abroad", Tamara Branković from the NGO CRTA from Serbia said that in Serbia information manipulation is a mechanism of government.
"Information manipulation spreads through mainstream channels and the media use them to create a parallel reality to control the public sphere. In this way, various narratives merge, often related to history, ethno-nationalism, stories about domestic traitors and foreign mercenaries. We are also witnessing a showdown with democratic actors, even with official strategic partners such as the EU, and the demonization of the West, the EU and its neighbors is in force, and there is a strong narrative that Serbia is surrounded by enemies," Branković said.
Serbia, she added, is fertile ground for Russian influence, and the anti-Western narrative is mainstream.
Program director of CDT, Milica Kovačević, stated that, like most of the Western Balkans, governments in Montenegro in some sense still deny the problem of disinformation.
Kovačević believes that the legal solutions are not aligned with the current situation and that it still seems as if these laws were written for analog, not digital media.
"The Montenegrin legislation is still not harmonized with certain directives dating from 2018", said Kovačević and added that no one in the region can fight against disinformation alone and that we need the EU's help.
Filip Stojanovski from the organization Metamorfozis from North Macedonia emphasized how important the role of the EU and foreign donors is, because, as he said, there is no support from local decision-makers, even when we talk about topics such as media literacy.
He added that it is necessary for the authorities in the Balkans to invest money in these activities, if they want to face disinformation. He also pointed out that greater involvement of the academic community and individuals from other fields is necessary in order to have greater involvement of the entire society.
Information about media owners often inaccurate and hidden
At the panel "Why transparency of media ownership is important", representatives of the Balkan Research Network (BIRN) from six countries spoke about the research they conducted on media ownership in the Western Balkans.
They found that often the official data that exists in the registers does not correspond to the real situation and that it is difficult to find the names of the real owners.
Irvin Pekmez from BIRN BiH said that they do not have a law that requires the owners to reveal their identity and ownership of the media, and that they are quite secretive in this regard.
"If you understand that you understand Bosnia, then you don't understand it either. The most watched and read media started during the war. In BiH, older people watch TV more than young people, and the opposite is true when it comes to online media," he said.
The Albanian media market is overcrowded and the public is offered different voices, which, according to Besar Likmeta from BIRN Albania, shows that there is a desperate desire of the authorities to control public opinion.
Vuk Maraš from BIRN Montenegro believes that the risk is quite high because we do not have data on ownership structures.
"I would urge the EU and the Government to cover that part in media laws," said Maraš and added that we have regulations, but they are not applied in practice.
"We have a concentration of multiple ownership of the media, we have companies that do not deal exclusively with the media but with other activities, it is difficult to define the concentration. The data has not been updated.
We have no idea what is happening in the digital sphere such as social networks, YouTube...", said Maraš.
He also states that there are media outlets in Montenegro owned by people we don't know who they actually are.
"My mother can come and buy some media for a euro, create income but also losses and bear no responsibility. This creates apprehension, especially when it comes to non-profit media. We have media that are not even registered as media or have offices in the world".
He says that measuring political control is the most difficult and that it was easier to do before 2020.
Ana Petruseva from BIRN North Macedonia said that they are late with media reforms.
"Seven, eight years ago, the media had a problem with state advertising and that was a control mechanism. In 2017, that practice was discontinued, but there is a demand to restore it. There is a practice for municipalities to give local media subsidies. Three to four million were given to private stations every year... Online media are trying to organize themselves and ask for the same benefits because otherwise they would be discriminated against," says Petruseva and adds that the online scene is not regulated in North Macedonia either.
The research showed that misinformation affects the attitudes of young people
Olivera Komar from the DeFacto Agency presented research on the media habits and political attitudes of young people in Montenegro, which was conducted in November of this year.
She stated that the survey showed that almost three fifths of young people (78.7 percent) want Montenegro to become a member of the European Union, while 55.2 percent support membership in NATO.
"The European Union is the most common answer (46,7 percent) when asked by young people with which country or state community Montenegro should have the closest political and economic relations," said Komar.
Young people, the research showed, use social networks most often compared to other media, but they are most often informed about political issues from internet portals (40,2%), followed by Facebook (19,7%) and television (16.4%). More young people believe that the media cannot be trusted, but that they can be trusted.
When asked who is responsible for the war in Ukraine, 33,6% of young people answered the United States, 27,1% answered Russia, while 16,8% see Ukraine as the culprit.
In order to investigate the impact of misinformation on social networks, a kind of experiment was conducted as part of the research, in which certain content was shown to groups of respondents, and then changes in their attitudes were examined.
"Research and experiments have empirically shown that fake news and misinformation really affect young people's attitudes and their perception of current political issues, by reinforcing already formed attitudes about social issues, making understanding and compromise even more difficult," said Komar.
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