Franceinfo offers this Friday evening a special issue of “Vrai ou Fake”, the magazine for decrypting fake news. A month after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, journalist Julien Pain indeed gives the floor to disinformation specialists, Russian journalists and witnesses in Ukraine.
He returned to the microphone of Europe 1 on the objective of this special edition. “I’m sure we’ve all noticed that, on social networks, we receive a lot of information about the war in Ukraine and sometimes information that seems a little questionable to us. It’s because there is such a huge flood of disinformation that is sweeping through all social networks, including French ones. So there is a real need to disentangle the true from the false, to know what is authentic and what is really happening on the ground”, explains he. “Particularly because there are actors in the conflict, and in particular Russia, who have a well-rehearsed and well-functioning propaganda machine. And we must be careful not to fall into the trap.”
“Disinformation justifies massacres”
For Julien Pain, this misinformation in times of war “kills”. “It helps to justify massacres,” he continued. The journalist also highlighted several examples of the latest Russian fake news, the most dangerous according to him. “Russia is trying to tell us right now that they are fighting a just war, that the Ukrainians have biological weapons that they are going to launch at the Russian people. So somewhere Russia is just responding to aggression. And it is very important to be able to say that no, they do not have the proof of this development of biological weapons.”
Another example cited by Julien Pain, the situation in Mariupol and the bombardment of a maternity hospital. “The Russians said that in this clinic there was the Azov battalion, ultra-nationalist, with people close to the neo-Nazis. And once again it is very important to be able to show with image analysis, testimonies, and in particular those of journalists on the spot, that no, they did not kill combatants but civilians.
This special issue of “Vrai ou Fake” is broadcast this Friday evening at 10 p.m. on Franceinfo, channel 27.