{"id":514976,"date":"2022-12-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=514976"},"modified":"2023-10-18T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T20:12:08","slug":"myret-zaki-lets-beware-of-the-one-who-claims-to-be-neutral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/economy\/myret-zaki-lets-beware-of-the-one-who-claims-to-be-neutral\/","title":{"rendered":"Myret Zaki: \u00abBeware of those who claim to be neutral\u00bb.\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his latest book, Economic misinformation<\/em>, independent journalist Myret Zaki analyzes the way in which governments and corporations juggle information, with the aim of embellishing or even hiding certain facts. A journey to the frontiers of lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Le Regard Libre<\/em>The Larousse defines a lie as \u00abthe action of altering the truth. Isn't the term you use, \u00bbdisinformation\u00ab, a gentle euphemism for this?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Myret Zaki: With lying, there's an intention to escape an embarrassing situation. In our case, the motives are the same. We don't want to show a certain reality, but there's no clear intention to lie to people, but rather to diminish the effect of less flattering figures, to emphasize what's more positive, or to hide the least attractive information by positioning it far down in a report, or by underestimating the negative and overestimating the positive. It's a whole reality that can be represented in a thousand different ways thanks to statistics. If I consciously choose the option that indicates the most flattering figure, is it a lie? In any case, it's an arrangement with reality. I know that the citizen who sees this figure will not be directly confronted with the raw reality, but will be filtered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What strategy should a citizen adopt to avoid misinformation as much as possible?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

It's very complicated, and that's why I felt it was my civic duty to write a book showing these realities. You have to do a lot of digging, have a very investigative mind, take an interest in statistical changes. You have to go deep into the figures, which is far from being within everyone's reach. If following the Twitter accounts of NGOs specializing in economic issues doesn't make you a statistician or a financial expert, it does at least help you to know who to listen to in order to get another side of the story, and thus to attenuate communication and marketing in order to get closer to objective information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you mean by that?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

We can't allow marketing and communication to spread unchecked to the public, we need mediators. This has always been the role of the media. They don't normally take a press or government release at face value, but review it, ask questions and bring the figures closer to reality, in order to obtain a more independent and objective account than the one originally provided by the communications body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You talk about objectivity, giving the example of Twitter accounts that can process this information. What are the criteria for defining whether so-called \u00abalternative\u00bb accounts are credible? The same applies to our readings: who can tell us that you are credible, for example? <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

I think it's within everyone's reach to select several voices that are interesting, in the sense that they are at least critical and appear independent in their organizational structures. Will a Twitter account or an individual be objective? No. I would argue that you tend towards objectivity by multiplying sources. Hence the idea of pluralism<\/a> in democracies. The citizen achieves a broader, more objective truth when there is a plurality of political parties, enabling several points of view to be expressed and whole sections of society to be represented. As soon as we are confronted with one-sided thinking in the world of ideas, we lose the possibility of objectivity. Objectivity is the sum of propaganda. So I can form my own opinion from a very broad spectrum, and not be hostage to a single point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n