The consumers of news in the online environment should not access news portals that do not obey the principles of correct and equidistant journalism. If they visit such sites, they should denounce them if they discover fake news, said experts of the Association of Independent Press (API) who presented a new report on the monitoring of 12 online portals. The monitoring revealed serious violations of the democratic norms, besides the deontological journalistic norms.

In a news conference at IPN, API expert Aneta Gonța said the Association of Independent Press proposes a mechanism for denouncing fake news. This is the campaign “Stop False!”. Besides the signaling of cases, it is important that the fake news that appears on some of the portals should not be disseminated.

The expert noted the media education is very important and thus should start from home, from an early age. Critical thinking should also be developed.

The report on the monitoring of the online media during the electoral period and the campaign prior to the presidential elections was produced by the Association of Independent Press within the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.

Secretary of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Elena Prohnitski said the sixth monitoring report reveals a wave of fake news, denigrating messages full of hatred and that incite violence. No matter who these messages target, they also affect the children who live in the same community. The consumers of online media products voluntarily or not often access these messages that not only bother, but even generate tensions in society, with consequences. But there is life after elections too and society should be united so as to solve such problems as the pandemic, economic crisis, social crisis and problems that are not put off by the elections.