The trail of the fake news published in several pro-SDSM news outlets, which included a doctored claim allegedly taken from a Russian newspaper, leads directly to the SDSM party.
Republika reported how several news sites, primarily Presscentar, published a doctored excerpt from a Novaya Gazeta article, in which the Russian paper alleges financial abuse on the part of the Russian FSB intelligence service. In the scan of the article published by Pressincentar, the name of the Macedonian opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski was inserted, to make the appearance that the VMRO-DPMNE party is funded by the Russian intelligence. The rest of the article about the alleged movement of large sums of money by an FSB officer is left untouched, and Mickoski’s name is the only thing that was added in the doctored image.
The SDSM aligned news site reported that the money mentioned in the Novaya Gazeta article, more than 1.6 million EUR, were given to VMRO-DPMNE, using the doctored excerpt as proof. Sase Ivanovski, editor of another pro-SDSM news site, Maktel, even followed Mickoski as he was leaving after a meeting with the Russian Ambassador to Skopje, and alleged that it was a secretive meeting to discuss the spending of the money received from the FSB.
The ruling SDSM party denied any involvement in this latest fake news scandal. Deputy party leader Kosta Petrov said that “SDSM is in favor of objective and transparent reporting, and we are not spreading fake news. The party is not involved in this article in any way”.
But, a closer look into the little known Presscentar.mk news site revealed that something is off with their team. The site listed a certain Milica Nonkovska as editor in chief, but the phone listed on the site was answered by a man who claimed it’s a wrong number, reports the Pressing news site which looked into the false report more closely. Later, the person contacted Pressing to claim that they took the article wholesale, without attribution, from another pro-SDSM outlet – Revolucioner.press, where the identical text and the doctored image are also published.
This Revolucioner site lists as its editor in chief Viktor Azmanoski, who is head of the SDSM party branch in Prilep – a high level party position in a major city. This is a direct link between the ruling party and news sites that publish fake news in the run up to the elections, alleging that the main opposition party is funded by foreign intelligence sources. It also raises the question whether the current Government is serious about its stated goal of tackling Russian influence in the Balkans, or is manufacturing false proof of this influence and using it for its own political gains.
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