"We have come to the point where absolutely anyone can anonymously open a website, call it the media, publish whatever they want about you, without any proof, and practically bear no responsibility. If that is not a threat to human rights and freedom of expression itself, then I don't know what is," this is how Darvin Murić, editor of the "Raskrinkavanje" portal, answers the question of whether, fighting for as much freedom of expression as possible, we have received disinformation as a threat to human rights as well. and freedom of expression.
This year's Olympic Games in Paris gave birth to a perfect example for that thesis.
Every kind of Montenegro was on its feet. And that's not because the spectators "in addition to the small screens" fervently followed our Olympians at the biggest sports show on the planet, but because the masses stood up and thunderously stood up in defense of the Italian boxer Anđela Karini. And there would be nothing terrible there. Standing up for a woman, sportswoman, neighbor, any person who is attacked, is a humane gesture. The problem is that we defended it with misinformation. Or to be precise - fake news. Like a stormy wind in the August days, the information about her rival, the Algerian contestant Iman Kalif, roared through Montenegro - the boxer is a man!!! At one point, it seemed that the majority of the population in Montenegro was "right-wing". Barrages of insults and conspiracy theories were constructed literally in a second on social networks, but also on not a small number of portals. It was claimed that Iman was male, but she changed sex, so that she actually has "xy" chromosomes, in the end she is "only male". It was also reported that the International Boxing Association IBA disqualified Iman from the World Championship in 2023 because she had a "high level of testosterone in her body". This was an additional incentive for the on-duty critics and experts to insult her, call her all kinds of names, condemn, judge... To stand up for the woman. But in defense of Angela. Not Iman either. For them, Iman is not, and cannot be, a woman. And it went on and on. And then the serious media started debunking it. First, it turns out that the IBA is a very controversial organization, and that the research it conducted is also questionable. Namely, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA organization of its authority to organize boxing competitions and took over the organization of the boxing tournament in Paris. The IOC claims that the IBA is a compromised organization, which has problems with financial non-transparency and ties to the Russian leadership. Kelif has otherwise competed internationally without issue over the past few years, including an appearance at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, as well as the 2022 World Boxing Championships, when she won silver. After the positions of the IOC, photos of little Iman also appeared. She was born in Tehran, as the oldest of seven children. A little girl with buns on her head, who had dreams like any other little girl. Her dream was to become a boxer. And in Paris this year, she realized her dream - she became golden.
It is interesting that, although the relevant organizations published all these data-facts, those who spread misinformation, both on social networks and on portals, did not even bother to convey them. To admit that they were wrong and that they were spreading fake news.
And that is the key problem with misinformation - those who market it, and count on consumers who will not accept that something was false.
Another problem with disinformation is its abundance. Murić says that no one counts them anymore, because it would simply not be possible to reach them.
"But the statistics that speak about them are certainly those about the decline in the number of children vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, as well as the data from the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) research that more than a third of citizens believe that it causes autism, that 40 percent of citizens believe that Russia in Ukraine is fighting against Nazism, that more than 45 percent of Montenegrin citizens think that the coronavirus pandemic was invented," says Murić.
He adds that when it comes to the media, based on their daily work, they can state that the situation has slightly worsened compared to last year.
"Individual media have become more read and active, they have developed different techniques of manipulation, because they are undisturbed by the state in their work," says Murić.
However, for now, traditional media in Montenegro generally do not create misinformation.
Although there have been examples of disinformation in both state and private media, they rarely produce disinformation. There is unverified information from anonymous sources that it is difficult to determine if it is incorrect, but when everything is taken into account, Raskrinkavanje has the least to do with the mainstream media," says Murić.
When asked whether Montenegro has mechanisms to democratically oppose disinformation, Murić is skeptical.
"The valid legal framework that regulates the issue of the media, as we popularly call them - "media laws", that is, the Law on Media, the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on the National Public Broadcaster Radio and Television of Montenegro, do not deal with the topic of disinformation at all, nor do they he mentions that term in them, so the answer is clear - we don't have mechanisms and we let misinformation run wild," our interlocutor is clear.
Apart from the work of the civil sector, nobody else in Montenegro is currently fighting against disinformation. The state does not fight against disinformation, politicians also, moreover, like to properly use it against their opponents. Advertisements of state enterprises are found on the websites of disinformation factories, legitimacy is given to the media and individuals engaged in propaganda and disinformation. All this justifies the pessimistic point of view on this topic.
However, the existing laws still provide certain mechanisms. The problem, however, is that they are not applied.
The new Law on Media stipulates that any interested person can initiate proceedings before a court if a portal disseminates content prohibited by the Criminal Law. Until now, only the state prosecutor could do that. "However, there is no data available that this provision has been applied in recent years," says Vesna Rajković Nenadić from the Media Institute, who was a member of the Working Group for drafting media laws.
As he adds, the possibility for any interested party to initiate the procedure was a compromise solution precisely to the requests to block those portals that are not registered in the register of the Ministry of Culture and Media.
"They are most recognizable as portals that spread controversial speech and often hate speech," Rajković Nenadić emphasized, adding that it was not enough but that there was no mood to go for some more radical solutions.
The media strategy envisages the formation of a network to combat misinformation, and the University would manage that process.
That document stipulated that they would elect people who would point out misinformation on a daily basis. It is not yet known when it will be formed.
This text was made with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and publishers of the Media Institute of Montenegro and does not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.
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