Unfounded Accusations of “Catastrophic Management” of the Coronavirus Epidemic

By Соња Рилковска On Jul 24, 2020 0

DFID - UK Department for International Development, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The title of the text tends to accuse the Government of incompetent management of the coronavirus, announcing worrying facts and photos. However, there are no facts in the text, only print screens of tables in Serbian/Croatian language, and it is not indicated who made them, nor the used methodology

Author: Sonja Rilkovska

We are reviewing a news item published on the portal “Kurir”, entitled “Worrying facts that show how catastrophically the Government is dealing with the coronavirus (PHOTO)”.

The analysis shown in the tables above was taken from Aljazeera Balkan, without citing the source with a link to it, which is another unprofessional moment (Article 4 of the Code of Journalists).

The unsigned text states:

On the black statistics that measure the index of infections and mortality of one million inhabitants of coronavirus, Macedonia is in the leading position, i.e. Macedonia has the highest mortality rate of all countries in the region.

At the end of the text, the journalist draws a tendentious conclusion:

These facts are another proof that the Government is dealing with the coronavirus in Macedonia in a catastrophic manner.

Journalists are not allowed to draw their own conclusions when reporting news – the conclusion is drawn by the public (Article 13 of the Code of Journalists).

Intentionally or not, the author did not convey the second side of the story, i.e. the statement of the Minister of Health Venko Filipče, who on several occasions clearly stated that the high mortality is due to the fact that post-mortem tests are performed only in our country.

There are countries that have higher mortality than ours. Of the more than 100 deaths, 22 cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed post-mortem. Nobody has done that before. We have taken that measure as well, in order to have a clearer picture of the situation with Covid-19 and to be able to analyze the contacts of the relatives of the deceased who were infected. When we take out that number of post-mortem diagnosed cases, the mortality rate is even lower, Filipce said.

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This article was created within the framework of the Project to increase the accountability of the politicians and political parties Truthmeter implemented by Metamorphosis. The article is made possible by the generous support of the US non-profit foundation National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The content is the responsibility of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, the National Endowment for Democracy or their partners.