On the occasion of the publication of miscellany of essays “What Orwell Didn’t Know – Propaganda in Contemporary American Politics”, FOSIM organized a debate, on October 29, on the current situation of the topics covered in the miscellany – propaganda, spinning of truth, bias, manipulation of public opinion – in Macedonia.

The authors of the contributions took their lead from George Orwell’s masterpiece “Politics and the English Language” to shed a new light on the power of politics and media and the latter’s role in presentation of one’s own “truth” to the public.

The book was presented by Vladimir Milčin, Executive Director of Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia - FOSIM. Klime Babunski, Roberto Beličanec, Gazmend Ajdini, Marjan Zabrčanec, Aleksandar Ivanovski, Damjan Zdravev, Tanja Milevska, Sašo Ordanovski and Dragan Antonovski also spoke in the debate.

Babunski provided an overview of the importance of the book and Orwell's works in the context of contemporary Macedonia. Marjan Zabrčanec, from the Youth Education Forum, talked about the levels of exposure of youth to propaganda, while Roberto Beličanec and Sašo Ordanovski talked about the functioning of propaganda and public opinion manipulations practiced by the Government.

Dragan Antonovski discussed the issue of political pressure on the media, censorship and auto-censorship in the media, while Damjan Zdravev from Ploštad Sloboda movement referred to the spin of information on the events that took place earlier this year, when a group of students of architecture protesting plans to build a church on the central square in Skopje were attacked by a group of opponents.

Tanja Milevska, Brussels correspondent for several media companies talked about the demands presented to the journalists to engage in "patriotic" reporting about EU and NATO and the persecution of correspondents from Brussels by Government and some media. (Source: FOSIM)