Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 8 – Kyiv plans to
launch satellite television broadcasting to the Russian Federation and
Russian-occupied Crimea, an indication that Ukrainian officials understand that
their country is engaged in an information war as well as a real one on the
ground and that they are ready to engage in it just as vigorously.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the
Ukrainian interior minister, says that the Ukrainian ministry for information
policy is planning such broadcasts to provide audiences in those countries with
the kind of accurate news and information they are not getting from
Kremlin-controlled outlets (sobesednik.ru/politika/20141207-pravdu-rossii-i-krymu-rasskazhet-ukrainskaya-propaganda-s-po).
He
said that the television programs, to be paid for by the government, will be “developed
by the best independent journalists” and will be used “exclusively for
propaganda and counter-propaganda of the truth about Ukraine as well as
providing a Ukrainian view on events in Ukraine and abroad.”
Pro-Kremlin Russian officials are
already dismissive. Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Duma’s foreign relations
committee, says that he isn’t certain what “truth about Ukraine” such a channel
might offer but is sure that “99 percent of Russians” won’t watch or accept
whatever is offered (inforesist.org/v-gosdume-nervnichayut-po-povodu-rasshireniya-veshhaniya-ukrainskix-kanalov/).
But he and the
Kremlin may be surprised. Russians are increasingly skeptical of what Moscow
media report about Ukraine and much else, and yesterday, at a concert in
Moscow, Boris Grebenshchikov pointedly said that “the war will end as soon as
we turn off the television. They are [screwing] with our minds” (echo.msk.ru/blog/troitskiy/1450902-echo/).
But as journalist Artemy Troitsky
pointed out in reporting the artist’s commented that for such an optimistic
prediction to have had any chance to be true, Russians would have had to turn
off their televisions “a minimum of a year ago” and not have turned them back
on at any point since then.
Troitsky
for his part offers seven theses about the information war now going on. First,
he says, “it is necessary finally to understand and to feel that ‘an
information war’ is really a WAR. Without any quotation marks. With killed,
wounded, and crippled. And those who triggered it and who are conducting it now
are war criminals.”
Second, those Russian television channels who are
conducting it are guilty of violating a variety of Russian criminal laws
including but not limited to the exacerbation of inter-ethnic hatred and
slander.
Third, the actions of these channels “violate
one of the basic rights of the individual: the right to truth.” And that prompts him to ask: why aren’t the numerous
human rights organizations in the world focused on this violation?
Fourth, those participating in such
media outlets are acting in ways that “contradict the principles of
professional ethics.” Fifth, they should
resign in protest even at a time of rising unemployment. Sixth, they should
speak out. As Grebenshchikov has shown, there are opportunities for this if
people are brave.
And seventh, Troitsky says, “as far as
the soldiers, officers and generals of the information war are concerned: those
who kill simply for more money … are beyond hope. But those who sincerely
believe that they are fighting for the Motherland against Ukrainian aggressors,
need to be reminded: You are fighting not for Russia but against her and her
future.”
What is
tragically the case, he concludes, is that it is currently far from clear just
how much worse things will have to get until such people begin to understand
this. Obviously, international broadcasting by Ukraine and by Western countries
can play a major role in helping bring that day closer.
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