WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
"As many as 78.8 percent of citizens believe that politicians often (39.7 percent) or at least occasionally (39.1 percent) use disinformation to achieve their political goals. A smaller proportion say that this happens rarely (7.9 percent) and never (3.5 percent), and 9.8 percent have no opinion on the matter," shows a public opinion survey conducted by the Damar Institute for the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) from February 22 to March 4 this year on a sample of 1,008 respondents.
When asked which politicians spread disinformation the most in Montenegro, the largest share of citizens (28.4 percent) explicitly claimed that "all politicians, without exception, do so."
Almost every other citizen (46.9 percent) believes that the Government of Montenegro is spreading disinformation, about a fifth (21.3 percent) do not believe so, and a third (31.8 percent) have no opinion on the issue.
The vast majority of citizens (about 70.7 percent) believe that disinformation strongly or very strongly influences the political decisions that citizens make, while 21.9 percent say that the influence is “weak,” and the remaining 7.4 percent see no influence at all, the survey showed.
For two-thirds of citizens, disinformation is a problem
About two-thirds of citizens (65.4 percent) believe that disinformation is a problem in Montenegro. In contrast, a quarter (25.7 percent) do not believe that disinformation is a problem, and 8.9 percent have no opinion on the issue.
"In the survey we conducted in 2023, almost the same number of citizens said that disinformation is a problem (65.7 percent) and that it is not (24.9 percent), with 9.4 percent of them saying they do not know.
Citizens still most often mention Serbia (25.4 percent) as the country from which disinformation comes to Montenegro, followed by America (16.7 percent), EU countries (8.6 percent), Russia (7.6 percent)... A quarter of citizens said they did not know the answer to that question.
Compared to 2023, the percentage of citizens who mention Serbia as the country from which disinformation most often comes has decreased (34.2 percent in 2023), and there is an increase in the mention of the EU (3.4 percent in 2023) and a slight increase for Russia (6.1 percent in 2023). The number of citizens who see America as a source of disinformation has slightly decreased (18.8 percent in 2023)," reads a statement signed by Marko Vukajlović, a journalist for the Raskrinkavanje.me portal.
When asked why disinformation is most often spread, the largest number of citizens cited political manipulation and influence on state decision-making (30.5 percent), economic interests, earnings from clicks and advertisements (20.9 percent), deliberate incitement of panic and insecurity in society (19.9 percent), and the destruction of trust in institutions and the media (15.4 percent)…
"We asked citizens what the main factors contributing to the spread of disinformation in Montenegro were, and a third told us that it was "the excessive influence of social networks", about a quarter cited political polarization and lack of media literacy, 17.4 percent cited the lack of independent media, and a very small percentage (1.3 percent) cited some other specific reason.
A little more than a third of citizens (37.5 percent) believe that social networks and traditional media play an equal role in the spread of disinformation. At the same time, 36.2 percent attribute a greater role exclusively to social networks, and 11.4 percent to traditional media. "14.9 percent of citizens have no answer to this question," Vukajlović concluded in a statement.
