Disinformation

Turkey's Communications Directorate has prepared a next-generation fact-checking platform to fight fake news on social media.

The communications authority will reveal the accuracy of news and information spread on social media via the platform. It will be available for IOS and Android.

We don't know whether this particular item of fake news first appeared on a television news broadcast or was initially hatched by some fringe far-right website.

"Sending personal messages is an attempt to spread misinformation faster, before it can be detected," explains Rosana Aleksoska, from, Fighting Fake News Narratives, F2N2, a project led by the well-known Skopje based NGO MOST, which searches for misinformation on the Internet.

"Those informing us are either withholding information or not reporting data from which we can draw useful conclusions." The claim refers to the pandemic. In fact, it refers to the pandemic in Greece and not, for example, in Turkey, where the country's biggest medical association has repeatedly claimed that the government has been making the numbers look better than they are.

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia on Tuesday of trying to destabilize the Mediterranean, pointing to a series of actions in countries that include Greece and Cyprus.

The coronavirus crisis highlighted, particularly on World Press Freedom Day, a more humane, and perhaps more useful, perspective regarding the importance of reliable news reporting. At times like this, when societies are dominated by fear, the risk from ignorance and misinformation intensifies while the need for accurate documentation of events and thorough analysis of data grows.

Plesoianu on April 25 invoked article 54 of the decree issued on 16 March by President Iohannis declaring a state of emergency, which has been used to block access to a dozen websites since then. 

The US ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, on Tuesday in Washington said North Macedonia, which joined the alliance this year, will receive similar assistance to other member countries in dealing with fake news from Russia, North Macedonia's state-owned MIA news agency reported.

Media regulations across the region have been tightened under states of emergency and journalists have been arrested on accusations of spreading misinformation concerning the response of authorities to the spread of the novel coronavirus. 

Some countries have sought to centralise the dissemination of official information and banned certain media from regular briefings. 

Greece has said that video footage allegedly showing a Syrian refugee shot dead near the Evros border is "fake news."
"Video showing fatality on Greek-Turkish border is fake news. We call upon everyone to use caution when reporting news that furthers Turkish propaganda," government spokesman Stelios Petsas tweeted.