Moscow, November 23, 2016
The EU Parliament has begun to consider a draft of the resolution “Strategic Communications in the EU as Opposition to the Propaganda of Third Parties.” The Euro-deputies provided the following examples of enemy propaganda: the Russian Today, the Sputnik news agency, and the Russian Orthodox Church, reports Lenta.ru, with reference to a press-release of the relevant European Parliament committee.
“The Russian authorities are actively using a wide range of tools, including multilingual channels (like RT), news agencies, social and religious groups (including the Russian Orthodox Church, social networks and internet-bots), to challenge Western values, to divide Europe and to gain support in their own country,” the message reads.
According to RT, the European Parliament considers Rossotrudnichestvo (the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation) and the Russian World Foundation as mouthpieces of Moscow propaganda.
The draft resolution was proposed by the Polish Deputy Anna Fotyga. The document will be put to vote today.
However, in the view of the Chairperson of the Civic Chamber Commission on Development of Public Diplomacy and Support of Russian Compatriots Abroad Elena Sutormina, the document “considerably contradicts not only diplomatic etiquette, but also a series of international documents, in particular those adopted by OSCE for the protection of free speech and ratified by the organization’s member states.”
Specifically, the draft resolution contains formulations which are on the verge of proposing censorship on the Russian media and calling on EU countries to put forward “concrete legal initiatives, so as to be more effective and responsible in resolving the issue of disinformation and propaganda.”
And in Germany the hosts of the “Cockatoo” radio program for children under twelve devoted one of their shows to how “bad” Russia was for allegedly bombing Syria which resulted in millions of refugees fleeing to the EU in search of a better life.
