Fake news and political integrity
Fake news is part of our everyday life. The daily "dose" of news that each of us consumes, through television, radio, portals, social networks, and even direct f2f communication is necessary to satisfy the level of information that our mind requires. It is difficult to say when the era of fake news begins, but in the modern internet society in North Macedonia, the point from which fake news takes serious momentum is considered to be the year 2016 and the elections in the USA, when information came out to the public that a group of young teenagers from The city of Veles controls more than a hundred websites that create fake news in favor of Donald Trump and actively participate and influence the election process in the USA.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190528-i-was-a-macedonian-fake-news-writer
From then until today, we can freely say that we live in a world of fake news, especially in an election year. This process of creating fake news is always closely related to the black campaign of the political parties and the gathering of votes and in a large percentage of the achieved practice is not in accordance with the political integrity in the public performance and public speaking.
Slander and hate speech
Investigating fake news and political integrity, the more related topics appear, the more defamation and hate speech used by politicians. Their target is always without exception their opponent. In this way, they try to "grab" political points and to please the neutral voter, who is the primary target and through whom they hope to win the elections.
The political ring in North Macedonia is filled with "fighters" who often hit their targets below the belt. Public performances and public speech are full of hate speech and slander. These two characteristics are not easily recognizable for everyone, but the key segment for their recognition and separation from correct political speech is when a certain politician tries to attack his opponent publicly on a certain topic (affair) without using data that is supported by facts. In this way, he/she tries to do certain political damage and to position the party he comes from in a better position. Politicians in our country must always make an effort to speak with political integrity and to show the best practices because trust in political parties is constantly decreasing according to quantitative and qualitative surveys of public opinion and in this way they are doing direct damage to themselves.
https://www.iri.org/resources/iri-north-macedonia-poll-shows-concerns-with-pace-of-eu-accession-concerns-with-economy-and-covid-19-dismay-with-local-leaders/
Nationalism and false patriotism
Nationalism and patriotism in political parties are by definition related to right-wing parties in the political spectrum. The political actions of this party are ideologically related to affecting the emotions of the "ordinary" voter. These two topics are legitimate for use in public performances and speeches. The problem arises when political integrity is neglected and these topics are abused, then the goal is for what is said to be in the background, and the emotion of the voter in the foreground. This method of voter manipulation is not easily recognizable, namely there are many examples when right-wing parties and their political leaders or spokesmen in this way manage to directly influence the election process in the short term and mislead voters. In North Macedonia, these methods are particularly popular and are used very frequently. During the refugee crisis in 2017, the right-wing opposition used this method by launching attacks on the government, claiming that refugee camps were being built in several large cities and that a large number of refugees who were transiting through the country during that period would live in the country. This “story” has been constantly upgraded, and nationalism and false patriotism have led to the fact that refugees will raise the level of criminality and that no one is safe, as well as they will taking away the jobs of our young people who are looking for work. This strategy has two phases. The first was fake news about the refugees to be published on a portal, and in the second, some of the politicians from the largest opposition party called on that source and told that the current government does not care about national interests. In that period, without paying attention to the political integrity of the politicians from the opposition, the effect they achieved was not at all bad and a large part of the citizens believed in this fake news. From today's point of view, it is understood that not a single camp like this has been built, nor has the level of crime increased. What is very interesting and shows how much their performance was organized in this direction is that if you search on the internet, you will find that there is no news with this content, because the portal(s) that publishes this content has not existed for years, and all the public appearances of politicians from opposition to this topic has been deleted. There are only texts from politicians from the government that deny this content.
https://meta.mk/en/mlasp-the-news-that-flats-for-refugees-will-be-built-is-fake-as-macedonia-is-a-transitory-country/
Political integrity and how to use it practically
The political parties should fight for every vote of the individual and it is legitimate, as well as the political competition to win the elections and win the power, because this is the basic principle for political association and action. But political parties and politicians have a responsibility to their voters and to the public. They are public figures who must always pay attention to how they address the electorate. These people should be an example for the rest of society with the aim of promoting democracy. Political integrity is one of the most important segments in this circular process. Every individual, regardless of where he belongs in the political spectrum (left, center, right), simply has to be careful what he/she says and how he/she says it. Fake news, hate speech, nationalism and false patriotism are dangerous categories that, if misused, they contribute to the decline of our democracy. Every topic, every event must be presented with facts or evidence. Fake news must not prevail, especially not for important social topics that arouse emotions in citizens. In this process, in addition to politicians, the public and the media play a huge role, which should be the mirror of a society. Their contribution is also key and their (non)participation always goes in a package with the politicians and political parties. The information that reaches the final consumer (the voter) always directly affects his choice of which political party or which individual to support and within the framework of the entire process, only with the responsible behavior of each individual and with complete respect for political integrity we can succeed in our final goal, the maximum improvement of democracy because this category should always strive for improvement in order to increase the participation of the public itself in the decision-making process.
