Zaev: The Government will fight against disinformation and fake news


North Macedonia’s Government has prepared an action plan on combating disinformation as it has been increasingly disrupting democratic and elections processes and affecting public trust in the institutions and the media, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said today.

“Disinformation is one of the main challenges facing democracy in 2019 and a tool to manipulate the citizens. To misuse technology in order to create fake identities and to make up events that have never taken place has gravely disrupted democratic and elections processes, threatening to affect the citizens’ trust in the institutions and the media,” said PM Zaev.

The country in the past two years, he added, has had to address large-scale spreading of disinformation on the social media and traditional media. Some disinformation was even shared outside the country.

“To address these cyber threats and according to the commitment to openness, accountability and transparency, the government has been working on an action plan on combating disinformation. We want to enhance national security and the safety of the citizens of our country and to safeguard and advance democracy,” Zaev said.

Zaev said that public debates would be held for the action plan and the views of all stakeholders in the society would be taken into consideration until the final version of the text was drafted.

The action plan consists of two parts with the first one covering security measures and the second one proactive ones.