Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 12 – One of the
reasons for the success Vladimir Putin has had in his propaganda efforts is
that he has exploited a dangerous trend in Western media – the proclivity of
many journalists and their audiences to equate “balance” with “objectivity” –
by putting out as an “alternative” viewpoint something that is nothing more
than a lie.
In a comment for the “EU Observer”
yesterday, Linas Linkevicius, Lithuania’s foreign minister, has sharply
criticized this unfortunate pattern and its consequences and has pointed out
that “a lie isn’t an alternative point of view;” it is simply a lie and needs
to be identified as such (euobserver.com/opinion/130188).
Many in Europe and the West,
Linkevicius writes, tend “to consider propaganda as an exotic bug which only
affects the lives of people far away – in Ukraine, Georgia, [and] Russia. But
carefully-packaged lies are finding their ways to audiences all over Europe,”
as a result of “a systematic and heavily-funded campaign.”
“Saying that the West is immune
because we have a plethora of media outlets isn’t true,” the Lithuanian diplomat
continues.
At present, he continues, “large, Russian-speaking portions
of the EU audience, whether in the Baltic states, or in London, get the
Kremlin's view first and foremost. It's the result of language limitations or
old media habits. In this sphere, media plurality means plural TV channels all
manipulated by one (Russian) authority.”
The West’s experiences in “past gas
crises involving the Russian gas supplier, Gazprom, should have taught us a
lesson. There is no such thing as diversity of supply if all the routes lead to
one source. And lack of diversity is a security threat.”
“We had the courage to confront
Gazprom’s monopoly in Europe,” Linkevicius says. “Now it’s time to confront
Russia’s infoprom, which has weaponized information in the same way the Kremlin
weaponized energy supplies.”
That requires, the Lithuanian
foreign minister argues, that “we need to start thinking not just ‘what can we
do for them?’ referring to non-EU eastern European states, but also ‘what can
we do to protect ourselves?’ … It’s equally important to ensure the
transparency of funding and ownership of media outlets which operate in the EU.”
“Kremlin mouthpieces know how to register in our cities,”
he continues. “They put on a "made in the EU" label, then they begin
to quietly incite hatred, hoping no one will question what they're doing
because of the holy cow of free speech.”
Some in Europe are waking up to this danger and beginning
to speak out. British officials have declared that “’freedom of speech is not
absolute.’” The European Commission has declared that “limiting freedom of
expression can be a proportionate course of action … to protect the integrity
of public information.” And the European Court of Human Rights has found that “freedom
of speech is not a defense for defamation.”
Thus, Linkevicius says, “we should ensure there is a
level playing field, and the same set of rules, for all of Europe’s media
outlets. No one should be allowed to play rugby on a soccer pitch.”
Earlier this year, he writes, he and his counterparts
from Denmark, Estonia and the United Kingdom called on the EU to “respond to
Kremlin propaganda with a ‘4 As’ approach: ensure information alternatives,
raise public awareness, be assertive on proactive communication of facts, and
request accountability from media outlets.”
That has “nothing to do with censorship or with producing
our own propaganda/lies,” he argues. Rather, it involves both providing
alternative sources for Russian-language audiences and changing “our own
thinking. We need to understand that [Russian] propaganda is directed against
all of Europe, not just the east, and we need to start calling things by their
proper names.”
“A [Russian] T-90 tank in Ukraine isn’t just a ‘vehicle,’”
he concludes. “A lie is not an alternative point of view. [And] propaganda is
not a legitimate form of public diplomacy.” Only “our naivete is preventing us
from taking appropriate action, even as the other side advances its undeclared
info-war.”
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