“One
clear lesson is that you can't fight propaganda with propaganda,”
says Tetiana Popova. “If you do that you lose credibility yourself
and bring all facts into doubt,” adds the former Ukrainian deputy
minister for information policy.
“And
that is what the Russians want,” she said firmly.
Like
many media experts in Europe, Popova worries that Russia is turning
free speech against the West and using democratic information tools
such as Twitter as weapons in a hybrid war.
“Now,
they are more sophisticated, taking a real story or facts out of
context and manipulating it, tailoring and shaping it for the
audiences they want to influence,” she says.
Last
May, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued a decree blocking
access to some popular Russian-based social networking sites,
including Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Google, and Vkontakte.
Popova
is supportive of the TV ban, saying it doesn't harm freedom of speech
as Ukrainians can still watch the channels, if they use a VPN or have
satellite, but she thinks media bans should be imposed by courts and
not government and that open societies shouldn't restrict freedom of
speech.
“The
thing that works best is letting journalists do their jobs,” she
argues. “Universities and non-profits are doing a good job in
monitoring the Russian output but more is needed,” she adds, citing
the work of fact-checking sites in the U.S. and Europe, which are
often funded by journalism departments and think tanks.
“In
the longer term, educating the public to be more discriminating about
media is crucial, and that needs to start at school with media
literacy classes, but all of that will take time,” she says.
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