Demostat: U.S. to Help Face Wave of Misinformation in the Balkans

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Even though the outreach of Russian misinformation disseminated in the past months is impossible to quantify, experts agree that the intensity of hybrid threats has grown, and that the ways in which Russian misinformation is spreading in the Balkans have multiplied as well, Demostat reported on April 12.

The report says that the Balkans, including North Macedonia, are at a fairly low level of media literacy, media freedom is restricted, sensationalism and fake news grow, and public broadcasters are also facing a lack of public interest in the genuine understanding of the media.

It’s one of the reasons why Special Envoy and Coordinator for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center James Rubin has travelled to North Macedonia. According to the country’s security analyst, Peco Trajkoski, Rubin’s visit to the country and the region displays direct U.S. support to the efforts these states are taking to curb hybrid threats and misinformation narratives coming from the outside.

“Rubin’s visit to North Macedonia is great support for the country and the Western Balkans as they face hybrid threats, propaganda and misinformation. The support Skopje receives as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is made very evident by this move, and it’s precisely this visit that shows that the U.S. is committed to resolving the global problem which no state, including ours, is immune to,” Trajkoski said.