Fake news is a media report that contains unequivocally wrong claims, that is, information that does not correspond to the facts. It follows from this definition that the page is "PES Against Fake News", a page that unambiguously contains false claims, none of which are supported by facts. And with these two sentences, one could put an end to the whole story about the Facebook page behind the Europe Now Movement, where they allegedly warn the public about fake news in Montenegro.
However, even though the page, in the jargon of social networks, is not very popular, as it only has a little more than 800 followers, and not even 300 people who like that "work", there are still a number of reasons why it is necessary to deal with it more seriously. The first and most important is: the Prime Minister of Montenegro, he is her companion and regularly and regularly shares all the content published on "PES against fake news".
"At the beginning, it is important to clearly emphasize that the page "PES against fake news" does not deal with fact-checking or the fight against fake news. Instead, it is about the activity of a political party aimed at reducing the influence of critical texts in the media that deal with their moves and policies," said program director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Milica Kovačević, an NGO within which the Raskrinkavanje.me portal operates.
BIRN's director for Montenegro, Vuk Maraš, shares a similar opinion, saying that he does not see the mentioned site as a pressure on media freedom, but as an unwise and ill-conceived political move, which turned into its opposite.
"It's a site that "debunks" fake news in an extremely clumsy way, by providing absolutely no relevant information to prove why the news they've labeled as fake is indeed fake, and just continues to spew populism. says Marash.
Milica Kovačević reminds that this labeling of the media as "fake news" is not a new phenomenon.
"The term became famous thanks to former US President Donald Trump, who used it extensively to challenge media coverage during his 2016 campaign. With that, he expressed his ambition to be the only source of information and "facts" for his voting base, creating an alternative reality in which all his moves are presented as genius, successful and victorious," she says.
In addition to Trump, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Duterte in the Philippines, Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey, and Putin in Russia labeled critical media coverage as "fake news". Now they were joined by Spajić in Montenegro.
The fact that Milojko Spajić jokes about it as prime minister, as well as many other officials of that party, Maraš says, shows that these are people who cannot lead politics and communicate with the public in a serious way.
"However, whenever they don't like something, they declare it fake news, and they think that in this way they will smear the eyes of the public, in order to try to reduce the weight of what certain media wrote," says Maraš.
Milica Kovačević states that democratic governments and political parties should refrain from such actions, because it is clear that this is pressure on the media. "It is especially noticeable that PES does not try to hide in anonymity, but their high-ranking officials, including the prime minister, proudly promote this "project" on their accounts on social networks," she adds.
Analysis of posts on the "PES against fake news" page shows that it focuses exclusively on media reports that treat PES and the Government critically.
"They ignore a lot of incorrect information in the media and online about other topics. Of the 23 posts on that page, 19 refer to the writing of the Vijesti newspaper, two to Dan, while the texts of Pobjeda and Portal Analitika merited one post each. This focus on one media could suggest that the page could have been called "PES against fake news", with a capital letter "V", because it is obvious that they are targeting a specific media", says the program director of CDT.
Maraš adds that the fact that PES does not use mechanisms based on the law, among others, those arising from the Code of Journalists of Montenegro, is perhaps much more dangerous than the very existence of this page.
"Instead of publishing and marking the news of various media outlets as false in such a way, without citing evidence, it would have been better if they had written to the self-regulatory bodies of those media outlets or, say, the Agency for Electronic Media, if they had filed complaints about these contents. However, if these mechanisms were to be used, then they would have to state how the code or law was violated and in what way, exactly, the media misinformed the public. And this is something that they essentially never offer in their posts on the page, which is supposedly "PES against fake news", but in fact is "PES for additional listening to the public", concludes Maraš.
When asked if this site in some way makes sense of actual fact-checking and the fight against fake news, Milica Kovačević answers in the negative.
"Fact-checking newsrooms, like Raskrinkavanja, undergo rigorous control and verification by international (IFCN) and European (EFCSN) fact-checker networks. In that process, we prove political neutrality, independence from government and business interests, and respect for the highest standards. Our work does not target individual political options, but is guided by the public interest. Every article undergoes multi-layered control, and every checked claim can be disputed only with a series of evidence and facts," adds Kovačević.
He adds that those who want to check the accuracy of certain information will not rely on the website of a political party.
"This project cannot be considered a fact check, but a political campaign, aimed at suppressing public criticism," our interlocutor is clear.
From the Ministry of Culture and Media, they did not want to discuss this topic.
Let's go back to PES, as a new political entity on the Montenegrin scene, which is also the backbone of the Montenegrin government, and wants to be the backbone of the democratic processes that await the country on its way to the EU.
Their daily warnings about "fake news", which are never backed up by facts, are reminiscent of the shepherd story from elementary school.
Mladić, who looked after sheep on the mountain every day, as well as his other friends from the village. However, over time he got bored of spending hours alone, so he came up with the idea of playing a joke with the others. He started shouting and calling for help, because his sheep were attacked by wolves. The other shepherds, at his shouts, took pitchforks, scythes, and clubs in their hands and ran towards him to defend him. When they came to him, he was laughing uproariously, and was pleased that he had deceived them. He did the same the next day, and his friends again rushed to help. He was idle, so he repeated the joke a third time, and the shepherds settled down again. On the fourth day, wolves really appeared on his side of the mountain. He shouted, called for help, cried... But nothing. The shepherds, who had been deceived many times, thought that even now they were being played with, and they did not lift a finger. And the shepherd from the beginning of the story, the wolves ate the whole flock.
A lie, or to be politically correct, not telling the truth, always ends up hitting the person who tells it.
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.
Downloaded from citajizmedjuredova.me.
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