Media manipulation

The Montenegrin Culture Ministry said that the country has become the subject of an organised "disinformation campaign" since it adopted controversial legislation on religion which has angered Serbian Orthodox believers.

Disinformation campaigns helped lead to the assassination of Martin Luther King, the daughter of the U.S. civil rights champion said on Oct. 17 after the head of Facebook said social media should not fact-check political advertisements.

Ad revenue has effectively sustained websites flagged as disinformation sources with millions of dollars, according to a study. Despite talk of regulation, experts told Deutsche Welle the issue needs a "whole-of-industry solution", DW reported. 

EU ambassador Luigi Soreca said on Monday evening that the controversial proposed law to regulate online media, which is currently going through parliament, is too severe and should be rethought.

"Politicians are not really eager to burn their fingers over disinformation," Jakub Kalensky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told participants at a summer school of journalism in the central Czech town of Havlickuv Brod in August.

The government in Skopje has come up with an ambitious draft strategy to combat the epidemic of fake news - but many media professionals and experts are not persuaded.

This story originally appeared on Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.

,,Thanks to the coordinated approach that we have built up at EU level, we have not witnessed a large-scale disinformation attack during the European elections.''This was stated in the studio of the BNT morning block, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Maria Gabriel.

As the term ends of the current politically tainted council of the public broadcasting service, a new chance has arisen to reform this propaganda tool of the former regime.

''Europe is taking small steps to fight fake news, but the road is very long.'' How to recognize fake news commented Maria Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Digital Society, in the morning block of the Bulgarian National Television.

Maria Gabriel said that every month the results of the fight of social networks with fake news are reported.