The three whales of fight against Russian propaganda: information security, critical thinking and Ukrainian broadcasting

A public discussion "Russian propaganda in Eastern Europe and in Donbas: different countries - a common problem" was held on October 6 in Slavyansk (Donetsk region). The event was organized by the NGO "East European Cooperation" (EEC, the Republic of Lithuania) in partnership with the NGO "Donetsk Institute of Information".

"Lithuania has been under pressure of the Russian propaganda for many years, and it learned to cope with the challenges of the information war. At the same time, public rhetoric of the Ukrainian society becomes more polar and aggressive. Therefore, we have combined two difficult issues within the same event – counteracting propaganda and the hate speech as one of the tools of information warfare"- said Nataliya Kazionnova, the head of the EEC projects in Ukraine.

A political scientist, Doctor of Social Sciences Nerijus Maliukevičius (Lithuania) participated in the discussion as an international expert. "We consider information security as identical to the energy-related one: diversification, alternative sources, competitive environment, elimination of intermediaries. Methods of achieving the goal - alternative sources of information in Russian, elimination of the monopoly of the Russian channels in the information field. Another effective way - actualization, demonstration of specific examples of manipulation. In my opinion, this is the best illustration of how to resist manipulation and dispel fakes", - pointed out Nerijus Maliukevičius in his speech.

The expert noted that one should carefully study the media space. "We need to know who is the owner of the media, how does the press work, and grasp the line beyond which propaganda begins. And, of course, media literacy. We need to ensure that media literacy is studied as a school subject. It is impossible to survive in the global information space without media literacy. I do not support one formal strategy or ideological strategy of information security. This should work in a complex, without emphasis on particular methods, exclusively in the legal field", - summed up Nerijus Maliukevičius.

Another aspect of the propaganda issues – is the hate speech as the enemy language – clarified Olena Styazhkina, a professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and a writer. "The enemy language is based on the fact that the occupied territories are losing information subjectness. Bypassing all the signs of a critical analysis of memory, we rush to the trauma of occupation and perceive information that we get from there or via the Russian media as close to the truth. Our focus becomes shifted. Instead of taking into account the principles of critical thinking, we are speaking with our own pain; respond to the voices from there as to the evil. Here comes the hate speech. This is a forced practice of the Russian propaganda,"- believes Professor Styazhkina.

The expert believes that Ukraine today is losing the information war to Russia. "The master of discourse – is the Kremlin propagandist. Our attempts to act objectively inside the information field are often doomed to failure. Kremlin shifts the center of gravity in those words, which we have been already familiar with. For example, "Donbas identity". We add a marker to the word and thus form some unique "Donbas people". Another favorite Kremlin’s story – is civil conflict, civil war. Kremlin broadcasts the story inside Ukraine through its political agents and to the West with a displaced sense. Civil war is suggested to the Western person in such a format: there is the Russian land and within that Russian land there is a part – Ukraine. They broadcast the ideology of the civil war, not as internal Ukrainian conflict, but as a conflict of the Great Russian Empire, to which Russia is entitled by virtue of the need to preserve the integrity of the empire. Even many intellectuals, historians say – this is a civil, ethnic conflict between the Russians and the Ukrainians on the territory of the Russian Empire", – emphasized Olena Styazhkina on the consequences of the propagandist actions.

An important factor contributing to preservation of tension in the information field in the East of Ukraine is the problem of relaunching the Ukrainian broadcasting in the occupied territories, and distribution of the Russian television content in the controlled areas.

"The situation in the East of Ukraine remains difficult. The region is at the forefront of the information war. Our society will have to overcome a difficult way before we manage to overcome the negative effects of propaganda influence. I hope that our discussion will become one of the assistants-beacons that will help the local representatives of civil society to handle a difficult problem effectively", - summed up Nataliya Kazionnova.

The project is funded by the Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.