This really is an amazing example of propaganda. It simply inverts truth. The story concerns a media employee in New Zealand, who, apparently, without permission inserted new content into newswire stories to put the Russian point of view. Clearly a bit of freelancing and of course, quite wrong from the point of view of being an employee on a contract – but I would imagine quite tempting as well.
These are some snippets from the report:
For context:
Radio New Zealand employee placed on leave amid investigation into pro-Russia editing of Ukraine reports. National broadcaster says thousands of articles will be reviewed after pro-Kremlin phrasing added to at least 16 Ukraine war reports.
In a radio interview on Monday, RNZ’s chief executive, Paul Thompson, described the edits as “pro-Kremlin garbage”,
Well – anything that is “pro-Kremlin” must be “garbage” of course, because we are at war and the other side is not allowed to have a valid point of view.
Changes included adding the word “coup” to describe the Maidan revolution; changing a description of Ukraine’s former “pro-Russian president” to read “pro-Russian elected government”; adding references to a “pro-western government” that had “suppressed ethnic Russians”; and adding references to Russian concerns about “neo-Nazi elements” in Ukraine.
All of which appear to be entirely correct. To take up one point; it is of course part of Western propaganda that Yanukovych is described as a “pro-Russian President” as if he were some kind of stooge or placeman for Russia. In fact, he was elected in an election described as fair by the OSCE. [1] The secret editor is just reminding readers of this fact. Then, it seems, that adding a reference to the rabidly “pro-Western government” which was in fact so Western we had a US official planning who was to be in it [2] is also viewed by the head of this radio station as “garbage”. And while it is arguable that Russia has exaggerated the suppression of ethnic Russians or the Russian language in Eastern Ukraine – it is the case that one of the first acts of the new “interim government” (to borrow the phrase that Western propagandists used at the time) was to try to reduce the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. [3] I have also seen derogatory remarks reported by Ukrainian soldiers tasked with evacuating people from Eastern Ukraine – suggesting that the view of Ukrainian officials towards “pro-Russian” people in Eastern Ukraine is dismissive. Recently Ukraine did in fact pass a law reducing the status of Russian in Ukraine – and requiring for example shopkeepers to greet customers in Ukrainian. [4] Ukraine is a divided country and language is a highly sensitive issue.
I like this, esepcially:
One piece inaccurately claimed that “Russia annexed Crimea after a referendum, as the new pro-western government suppressed ethnic Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine”.
What is inaccurate about this? There was a referendum. The results of this are more or less 100% in line with the results of independent polling by Western organisations. And it was clear that the new “government” was heavily leaning towards the West and North of Ukraine and, as we mention above, immediately tried (but did not in fact follow-through), with a law to limit the use of Russian as an official language. In 2015 the new “government” banned the Communist Party in Ukraine – a blow to freedom, according to Amnesty International. [5] The Communist Party was likely to have been supported by Russian speakers in the industrialised East of Ukraine. [6]
There is no evidence Russian speakers are “persecuted” in Ukraine, a bilingual country.
This is an inversion. See above – for the legislation against the use of Russian, not just in schools but in shops. [4] Pro-Russian media stations were banned in 2021. [7] The political party which spoke for people in the East who, presumably, felt close to the USSR for historical reasons, was banned. Their elected President, (Yanukovych had more support in the East than the West of Ukraine [8]), was chased out in an uprising led by people from the West and North of Ukraine. And the Guardian can write: “There is no evidence Russian speakers are “persecuted” in Ukraine, a bilingual country”. It is just laughable.
Clearly someone here has tried to correct the deluge of propaganda about Ukraine. What is striking is the reaction to the discovery – a loud proclamation of the official entirely one-sided narrative as the “truth”. This really is 1984.
Notes
- https://www.oscepa.org/en/news-a-media/press-releases/press-2010/yanukovych-wins-ukraines-presidential-election
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YctPO-k7ZlM&ab_channel=FgigiFU
- https://sites.tufts.edu/fletcherrussia/how-russian-language-is-at-the-center-of-russia-ukraine-war/
- https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210401-new-law-stokes-ukraine-language-tensions
- One piece inaccurately claimed that “Russia annexed Crimea after a referendum, as the new pro-western government suppressed ethnic Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine”.
- See https://thenewobserver.co.uk/some-people-in-ukraine-want-to-be-part-of-or-linked-to-russia/ – the entry for John Mearsheimer.
- https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-zelenskiy-bans-three-opposition-tv-stations/a-56438505
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/The-Orange-Revolution-and-the-Yushchenko-presidency