Wednesday 25th of December 2024
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RSF (RWB) journalising for the empire....

Reporters Without Borders has published a sensationalist report on Russian media's work in the Balkans as part of a new project known as 'The Propaganda Monitor', accusing Sputnik and RT of spreading "disinformation" and demanding a crackdown by the EU. Balkan affairs expert Stevan Gajic tells Sputnik why such fearmongering doesn't work on Serbs.

Reporters Without Borders' (French acronym RSF) new 'Propaganda Monitoring' multimedia minisite promises to "promote reliable journalism" by exposing "the many faces and tactics behind propaganda worldwide, bolstering the public's understanding of the information space and helping them navigate it more safely."

Russian media, including Sputnik and RT, have become the self-anointed Paris-headquartered media watchdog's first target, with RSF rolling out a series of articles on Russian media's ability to find evade censorship, custom-tailor content, and in Serbia's case, transmit so-called "Kremlin propaganda in the Balkans despite EU sanctions."

RSF wants the European Union and its members to "hold Serbia accountable for hosting Vladimir Putin's factory of lies," spending much of its investigation complaining about Russian media's refusal to answer its loaded questions, whining about its successes captivating local audiences, and crying about Serbia's receptiveness to hosting Russian outlets.

"Reporters Without Borders cannot be regarded as a reliable source because every line in this report is soaked with biased language," Belgrade-based Balkan affairs expert and Institute of European Studies research associate Stevan Gajic told Sputnik, commenting on RSF's report.

"The motivation" behind RSF's demands for a crackdown comes down to its status as "a media wing of NATO, a media wing of the collective West. This is a pure Freudian projection. They are accusing others of what they are doing themselves,” Gajic stressed.

“Where were Reporters Without Borders when Radio Television of Serbia was bombed in 1999 and when 16 TV staff were murdered in cold blood?" the observer asked, referencing the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. There is no credibility from people like this who did not act when they should have,” the observer recalled.

Narratives by RSF and others about Sputnik and RT being threats that need to be silenced have a clear end goal: “to nullify any kind of information coming from the other side to hush, to silence everybody who is not playing along NATO’s narrative. And this is especially a problem for NATO and for these puppet organizations, such as journalists with Reporters Without Borders, during times of war,” Gajic said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240930/reporters-without-borders-attack-on-sputnik-and-rt-highlights-ngos-status-as-media-wing-of-nato-1120363750.html

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

proper journalism...

The Sputnik headquarters in Moscow has become the central venue for training sessions for 11 journalists from the expanded BRICS group.

Representatives of major media outlets from their countries are participating in the special fall session of the SputnikPro BRICS+ project, which opened today at the media group's press center as part of the InteRussia program from the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Foundation.

The session is timed to the XVI BRICS Summit, which is taking place under Russia’s chairmanship this year. The event was launched by Vasily Pushkov, Director of International Cooperation, and Sergey Orlov, Deputy Executive Director of the Gorchakov Foundation.

Young professionals will remain in Moscow until the end of October. During the month, they will attend master classes and workshops from Sputnik experts, meet with representatives of leading Russian companies and think tanks, and get acquainted with the cultural life of the capital.

At the start of the event, participants shared their impressions of the program and their stay in Russia.

Elsaid Azza Ahmed Abdelmegeed from the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram remarked:

"To begin, I would like to talk about Moscow. It is a beautiful and well-organized city. Despite its large size, everything functions with precision. I was honestly surprised by the stability of the situation here, despite the ongoing war, which is contrary to the image portrayed in the West. Moreover, the people are very kind, and most importantly for me, I don’t feel stared at in the streets for wearing the hijab"

"As for the training, everything has been well organized from the moment we arrived at the airport. The entire team has been cooperative and ready to answer any questions at any time. On the first day of the training, and during our tour of Sputnik Agency, we received valuable information from Vasily Pushkov and Viktoria Polikarpova. It strives to reveal the truth and dismantle the propaganda that both Arab and Islamic countries face. I hope to work with Sputnik one day," she added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241001/internship-for-journalists-from-expanded-brics-group-opens-at-sputnik-1120372924.html

 

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

naughty google....

Google bans African media over alleged links to Russia
African Stream says it has faced censorship on several platforms since US officials labeled it a Kremlin propaganda channel

Pan-African digital media organization African Stream has accused Google of censorship after the American tech giant locked it out of the Gmail workspace. The US government recently claimed the outlet is a Russian disinformation tool.

The move on Tuesday resulted in the loss of access to two years of emails and files stored in the Google cloud storage facilities, the outlet said in a statement. 

“Google did not provide any credible reason for banning us other than saying we ‘violated Google Workspace policy,’ which includes ‘sending spam or using the account for any kind of fraud,’” it stated.

African Stream has denied engaging in any of the alleged activities. “We can only conclude they took us down based on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s unsubstantiated allegation on 13 September that we are ‘Kremlin propagandists,’” it added.

During a press briefing last month, Blinken claimed that RT “secretly” operates the outlet, which has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, across a variety of social media platforms. He alleged that while the organization’s stated goal is to give a voice to Africans both at home and abroad, “in reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists.” 

READ MORE: New Africa show to premiere on RT

On Tuesday, African Stream reported that major tech companies had begun cracking down on it across platforms “shortly” after the US official’s comments. Its YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok channels have been removed, and Stripe, a financial services provider, has blacklisted it.

The US presents itself as a bastion of democracy. Integral to any healthy democracy is media freedom – allowing different viewpoints to be heard. But time and again, this basic ideal has been ridden roughshod over if it suits Washington,” African Stream wrote on X (formerly Twitter). 

“No evidence has been put forward to support the allegations made against us, yet we are being silenced on the biggest social-media platforms. Why do Africans articulating their concerns pose such a threat to the Western establishment?” it added.

Washington launched a major crackdown on RT in September, accusing the channel of “functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.” US State Department official Jamie Rubin blamed RT’s reporting for the fact that much of the world has not sided with Ukraine as Washington expected it to.

Following the allegations, YouTube terminated five right-wing political channels, including Tenet Media, linked to what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) claims is a Russian effort to sow division in America and influence its domestic landscape. The DOJ had previously charged two Russians, identified as RT employees, with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), money laundering, and illegally funneling millions of dollars to US-based entities to promote a so-called ‘Russian narrative’ on various politically charged issues.

Moscow has branded the US sanctions against RT and other news outlets as a declaration of war on free speech.

https://www.rt.com/africa/605115-google-bans-alleged-russian-linked-african-media/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.