Moldovan Journalists Explain High Cost of Disinformation

An IWPR partner NGO has trained citizens in more isolated, rural areas of Moldova – who often remain particularly vulnerable to manipulation - in how to identify and counter disinformation.

Fake news remains a particular problem in Moldova, posing a severe threat to its democratic development, health and security.  

“Moldova has had bad experience with media outlets controlled by politicians or interest groups, because the editorial policy of those newsrooms was aimed at polishing the image of a politician or a party, but not at informing us,” explained Lilia Zaharia, coordinator of the Association of Independent Press (API) ongoing STOP FALS campaign, which aims to provide people with the tools to deal with misinformation in the media and on social networks.

In June, events took place in the districts of Căușeni, Ștefan Voda, Leova and Cantemir where journalists were brought together with citizens and local authorities to illustrate the dangers of disinformation in periods of crises.

Awareness was a key, first step to counter disinformation, Zaharia continued.

“Let us not believe all information, let us develop our critical thinking skills by checking it out from several sources,” she continued. “Not everything that is said on TV is pure truth."

In the village of Tănătari in Căușeni district, Zaharia gave local citizens examples of how misinformation had affected election campaigns, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in neighbouring Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. She explained manipulation and misinformation’s subtle techniques, and advised people to pay close attention to news stories’ headlines, photo, video and statements taken out of context.

“Fake news is more quickly accepted and spread than the truth."

“We in the countryside are not journalists by profession, we don't know all these details,” said Tănătari resident Grigore Roșca. “We still analyze news the way we were used to, we still sift through the information trying not to believe everything we see, but we didn’t know all the rules that can help us avoid disinformation, which were presented to us at this discussion.”

In the town hall meeting held in south-eastern Stefan Voda, near the Ukrainian border, civil servants, social workers and teachers talked about how the war in Ukraine, and related false news, was affecting them.

“People can be easily influenced and manipulated,” said Lia Banari, head of the district council’s public relations department.  “Fake news is more quickly accepted and spread than the truth. That is why local authorities, especially those who work with the public, should put an effort into verifying information related to Ukraine so that the correct one reaches the citizens.”

In Cantemir, a town of 3,500 near the border with Romania, some participants admitted that they had shared false information on social networks because they did not know how to check whether it was true or not. Andrei Bumbu, a senior probation counsellor, said that every citizen should know how to spot false information and develop critical thinking skills.

Ecaterina Baraboi, a librarian in Filipeni, a village in the eastern district of Leova, said she planned to now discuss these issues with readers visiting the library.

“We no longer know what is true and what is false,” she continued. “However, we have learned at this event that we have to follow some rules of information verification to draw our own conclusions.