The responsibility of the media that informs about the war is twice as great. Speech causes emotion, emotion causes reaction, and all too often it can go in the wrong direction.
Author: Katerina Topallova
“DRAMA IN POLAND!”, “Is the Third World War Starting?”
These were some of the headlines in the Macedonian media after the rockets fell in Poland, in a village on the border with Ukraine, killing two people.
The day it happened, I was at a press conference in Warsaw dedicated to wartime reporting. Before and after the event, all the panels that were organized were related to this topic. Many journalists from Ukraine were invited to the conference, as well as journalists from all over Europe and the world, including former and territories where there has been a military conflict or where there is currently.
Journalists have an extremely important role, especially in times of war. Then the responsibility doubles! What they should not allow themselves is to sensationalize the already terrible scenes on the ground, they should not sacrifice the truth for exclusivity and they should choose the words to convey a certain news.
Colleagues from Ukraine shared how they report as families, relatives and loved ones are killed, deported and live in uncertainty. They say, we cry until we open the computer, then you enter another frame and you have to be a professional journalist, finish your work, close the computer and cry again!
Another colleague, who left Donetsk for Berlin a few years ago because of the war, told how her colleagues in Ukraine asked her several times to check the reliability of the information they had before publishing it. Some of them don’t have electricity, some work in the cold, others don’t have internet… and in such conditions they try to be professional journalists.
It is not easy, but it is very responsible! At the moment, they are the most important link for all the steps taken by the population, all the plans, all the decisions.
Some of the Macedonian media very easily publish various information related to the war. They are rarely verified, blindly believed, and almost no one is held accountable for the lie told or the panic it causes.
Disinformation in wartime can cause a new war!
Polish media did not publish any news until it was official. No Polish media has calculated with the possible decision of the head of state. The population is worried! All of Europe is worried! Everything is possible and nothing is impossible, but words are measured several times before they are spoken publicly!
I affirm that Warsaw has had no drama! There was concern! It is a drama if panic sets in, if people start fleeing, if they withdraw money from banks, if they take guns to the streets and go to battle, if gasoline is poured in panic, if food is bought in panic. … It wasn’t that! There was no such drama! Such a drama brings new crises that do not always have to be military, but will have great consequences not only for Poland, but also for the countries in which the information is placed that there is drama in a NATO member country!