The suspensions of broadcasting (CNN, British BBC, CBC/Radio Canada) on Russian territory or the cessation of coverage of events from Moscow (German ARD and ZDF, Italian RAI) have multiplied among the Russian or Western independent media since the emergency adoption by Moscow, on Friday March 4, of a text punishing with prison (up to fifteen years) the authors and broadcasters of“false information about the army”.
That “information warfare” declared by the Kremlin, which blocked Facebook and restricted access to Twitter on Friday March 4, is part of an ongoing logic for several years, recalls David Colon, professor at Sciences Po and specialist in the history of contemporary propaganda (The Masters of Manipulation. A century of mass persuasion, Ed. Tallandier, 352 pages, 21.50 euros). The Russian state media banned by the European Union (EU) on Wednesday March 2 were the Trojan horses.
The EU’s decision to ban the RT television channel and the Sputnik news agency has been interpreted, in particular by professional journalists’ unions, as an act of censorship. What justifies it?
The banning of these Russian propaganda media is an exceptional measure, justified by the dramatic situation we are going through. Faced with the immediate threat posed by Russia’s disinformation operations, we are faced with an informational state of emergency that does not say its name. I am obviously attached to freedom of expression, and it is not for me to legitimize any attack on the rule of law. But given the circumstances, this state of exception may seem legitimate if we consider that our country has been explicitly threatened with reprisals.
RT in French, which has a hundred journalists with press cards and which benefits from an agreement signed with Arcom (ex-CSA), has not yet been put on notice for breach of honesty information only once in four years of dissemination…
First, it should be remembered that holding a press card is not a vaccine against the manipulation of information. Then, it is now well attested that Russian propagandists, including RT, have amplified all social or antivax movements, and more broadly conspiracy theories, by resorting to trolls, bots (false automatic accounts spreading fake news). In addition to division, it is a question of sowing the seeds of distrust within democratic regimes, of weakening their institutions, of sowing doubt as to any intervention which could be harmful to Russia. It must be admitted that, without often knowing it, we were the object of an information war intended to undermine the foundations of our democracies.
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