Politicians should practice ethical, transparent and professional communication, based on facts, not manipulations and offensive expressions, is one of the conclusions from today’s presentation of the research “Determining Political Harmful Narratives (HARM-TIVE) to MPs, which was organized by the Committee on Political System and Inter-Community Relations in the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia.

These are findings from the nine-month monitoring of harmful narratives of political parties, analysed in the period from September 2023 to May 2024 and how they are broadcast on TV and in online media. The aim of the event was to remind political actors of the most common violations of the standards of ethical public and political communication, but also to open a discussion on what tone of communication political parties are preparing in the pre-election and election campaigns, considering the coming local elections in the autumn.

Ljupcho Prendzov, President of the Commission for Political System and Inter-Community Relations, emphasized in his introduction that the responsibility lies greater with politicians who should defend opposing positions with arguments, not hate speech.

“It’s good to talk, I believe that there are certain centres and individuals who lower the low threshold of decent communication. Every MP, minister has the right to choose how to conduct political communication, but the minimum limits should be respected,” Prendzov stressed.

Today’s discussion is a call for responsibility, especially as we approach a new election cycle, emphasized Bojan Georgievski, a member of the ICS research team. According to him, what is new in this topic is that these narratives are now, unlike before, spreading faster, appearing in subtler and sophisticated forms, and are becoming increasingly difficult to recognize – both for citizens and for institutions.

Eleonora Serafimovska, a member of the research team, presented in detail the key findings on violations of standards for ethical political communication and pointed out the most frequently used harmful narratives in the communication of political parties and their leaders: undermining trust in institutions, biased selection, character attacks and demonization, and fomenting divisions.

She pointed to the enormous potential of these narratives to cause harm in many spheres, noting that they do not serve to inform, but are half-truths, even disinformation and lies, and the urge to promote them is to exacerbate divisions and polarization in society on national, religious, and above all political grounds.

MP Vesna Bendevska said that all participants in political communication should bear some of the responsibility for what is happening and that everyone should start on their own.

“I see the harmful narratives that have existed in political communication over the years as a Gordian knot. I was struck by the results because I don’t know if we are aware of what we are causing with our speeches when we take the podium, and the media, as transmitters, broadcast that. If we don’t sit down to talk about how to prevent harmful narratives, we haven’t done anything. We must get involved in preventing hate speech,” said Bendevska.

“The research is an important instrument for establishing ethical criteria, which will not just be on paper, but the first step in building a more mature democratic capacity of the institutions,” said MP Marija Petrushevska.

On the other hand, MP Redzhep Ismail expressed disagreement with the findings of the research, emphasizing that the rhetoric being used reflects reality and steps cannot, nor should, be taken to reduce harmful narratives.

The participants in the debate agreed that politicians have far greater opportunities for mutual exchange of views and harmonization than citizens, which is why they bear increased responsibility for the tone of public communication. They emphasized that the use of speech full of insults and emotional manipulation has a direct impact on the increase in violence in society – from femicide to peer violence.

Therefore, he called for increased awareness among politicians about the consequences of the word spoken in public, for a change in personal behaviour, and for the promotion of a discourse that includes respect and argumentation. Only through such an approach can an inclusive and just public sphere be ensured, free from rhetoric that deepens divisions and incites violence.

The research presentation is available here. All details about the research, methodological framework and samples are available here. Additional information can also be found in the monograph, as well as in the guide with guidelines for identifying and explaining harmful narratives, intended for both political actors and the media. The research was conducted by ICS with the support of the British Embassy in Skopje.