The US Ambassador to Montenegro, Judy Raising Reinke, said on Thursday at the regional conference “Disinformation Network: Stolen Democracy” held in Podgorica that “the Russian government is spreading disinformation and executing facts, so that NATO can seems to be the culprit”.
Speaking about Russia, she said that “the country has the machinery to spread disinformation.”
“Russia has a machine for spreading disinformation, inventing stories without any truth”.
Mrs. Reinke said “The United States has no chemical or biological weapons or programs for such weapons. We do not have such programs, Russia has. We have evidence of the use of biological weapons. This has happened in the United Kingdom, where our citizens were victims.” .
The Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, Said that there is a lot of disinformation in the public space and that fake news has become dominant in Montenegro.
“A great political war is taking place on social networks and there is a lack of professionalism.” said Mr. Abazovic.
Mr. Abazovic pointed out that in the future the criminal policy against media which disinformed should be strengthened.
“When the new government is formed, the obligations to reduce the influence of fake news and misinformation must be met and criminal policy against certain media must be strengthened.” said Abazovic.
Abazovic added that “the affirmation of fascist acts, strong polarization and nationalism is very harmful to small systems like Montenegro, which are still very vulnerable.”
MEP Tonino Picula stressed that “disinformation has led to a loss of trust in the media.”
Mr. Picula added that certain groups in society are particularly vulnerable and sensitive to the harmful effects of disinformation.
“The problem of disinformation is becoming more and more dangerous as an obstacle in many spheres of life. “Starting from the exploitation of hopes and fears, the sensational approach to tragedies, the manipulation of data, the newsrooms with various threats, the disinformation as deliberate misinterpretation, led to the loss of trust, not only in the media environment, but also in policy making and technology.” , said Mr. Picula.
The Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Montenegro, Ricardo Seri, said that the role of journalists is very important in society.
“The Media Fund for the Fight against Disinformation will try to improve the capacity of the mainstream media to detect and find disinformation,” Seri said.
Mr. Seri said that the delegation supports the initiative to introduce media literacy in schools.
The conference was organized with the support of the Balkan Fund for Democracy (BTD)./VOA