March - 2022

Mar 31
1 min

The Business of Silencing Journalists And Its Harm to the Democratic Environment

Authored by Demet Altunay In every democratic society, journalists are expected to freely and honestly convey information in the public interest, without fear of being silenced by the threat of lengthy retaliatory trial proceedings. In a society where this cannot be guaranteed, the existence of democracy and freedom of expression should be questioned. The failure to guarantee such freedoms lends itself more closely to authoritarianism than a free democratic society. Therefore

Mar 15
1 min

BBC News: Ukraine war - Editor interrupts Russian TV news show.

A woman holding an anti-war sign ran on to the set of a Russian evening news programme on the state-controlled Channel 1 on Monday evening. The sign, clearly visible behind the presenter, read: "No war, stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here."The woman has been named as Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at the channel. Russian TV news is tightly controlled by the Kremlin and reflects only the Russian version of events in Ukraine. Ms Ovsyannikova i

Mar 13
1 min

Financial Times: China’s tech platforms become propaganda tools in Putin’s war.

The Ukraine invasion is casting an unflattering light on the role of China’s private technology groups, including Tencent, Sina Weibo and ByteDance, in disseminating official misinformation, posing difficult compliance issues for the companies’ foreign investors. The internet platforms of tech giants in China are promoting content backing Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine while suppressing posts that are sympathetic to Kyiv... China’s information control ap

Mar 8
1 min

The Guardian: Chinese government adviser calls for law to ban ‘fake news’.

An adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion... The former dean of the prestigious Peking University’s School of International Studies ... called on Beijing to introduce specific measures to “severely punish” those who create false information to “cause serious harm to society”... if not properly implemented,

Mar 4
1 min

Reuters: Russia fights back in information war with jail warning.

Russia's parliament on Friday passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military... Lawmakers passed amendments to the criminal code making the spread of "fake" information an offence punishable with fines or jail terms. They also imposed fines for public calls for sanctions against Russia."If the fakes lead to serious consequences then imprisonment of up to 15 years threatens," ... the Duma in Russian, said in a sta

Mar 4
1 min

SKY News: [Putin affirms:] Ukrainians have been brainwashed.

Putin again claimed Russia was fighting 'Neo-Nazis', a narrative he has stuck to since he invaded Ukraine.

Mar 3
1 min

BBC: Ukraine: Watching the war on Russian TV - a whole different story.

... a snapshot of what ordinary Russians would have picked up, on Tuesday 1 March, while channel-hopping across the country's key TV stations... On Rossiya 1 and Channel One - Russia's two most popular channels, both state-controlled - Ukrainian forces are accused of war crimes in the Donbas region. The threat to civilians in Ukraine comes not from Russian forces, but from "Ukrainian nationalists", says the Rossiya 1 presenter... Across state-controlled TV, presenters and cor