Ossetia: Winning the Media War

Could it be that western media would present an objective version of the Georgia-South Ossétia conflict? Or do they serve the interests of the Empire, painting a tendentious unilateral picture, using opinion makers without any credibility and regurgitating pretty opportunistic sentences, hoping that if they are repeated countless times, like soft water on a hard stone, would end up by perforating the collective conscience?

Photo: Ossetia: Winning the Media War

The three versions of the electronic Russian newspaper PRAVDA.Ru (Russian, English and Portuguese) have never received so many visits, and we have never had such a vast influx of new readers who show up with the message, “No more am I going to believe a word that the western organs say,’ after they discover at last who began this sad episode in the Caucasus, that it was not Russia, but Georgia (slaughter of 2.000 Russian civilians without any provocation on the night of 7/8 of August) and they discover that the Russian response was within their rights under international law, being a limited and punitive campaign, to guarantee the peace.

Why do they serve the courses and the deontology of journalism, if information channels become vehicles of disinformation and handling? Do they want to make clowns of the readers? Is there no one nowadays who believes in the notion of credibility, seriousness, decency and honesty?

Leaders like Bush and Condoleeza Rice do not refer or even once tell about the war crimes of Georgia, therefore it is as if they are giving their endorsement to the acts of slaughter and the destruction of the city of Tskhinvali, which began this conflict. Now nearly the entire international media blindly follows the line drawn by their owners and masters. The notion of a free and objective media died in the west. There is not, therefore, freedom of expression.

Contrary to what they say, in the Russian Federation the media is free. At PRAVDA.Ru, there are no directives on what can or cannot be said, since the truth is respected. Contrary to what they say, and I apologize for disillusioning those who wanted to believe that, yes, there are no guidelines of the Kremlin on us. Therefore, that some western people can declare themselves informed, or well informed, with the press and television channels they have to use, defies any thread of logic.

I conclude with the words of President Dmitry Medvedev, in the press conference after his meeting with the German Chancellor at the end of last week:

“In first place, what initiated the military operations into South Ossetia? Was it the Russian peacekeepers, or was it the Georgian army? If you look at what is shown on television the answer is not clear, but we know the answer to this question.

In the second place, does the international community wish that this aggression could have resulted in the end of the existence of Ossetians in South Ossetia and of Abkhazians in Abkhazia? Yes or no? “

In the third place, are we going to consider that what went on to be a humanitarian catastrophe, yes or no? Or is this only a case only for Ossetians and the Russian Federation? “

If we answer these questions, it becomes more clear.

Thank you.”

The leaders of Georgia, the USA and the countries that supported Tbilisi without giving any reference to the cowardly act of slaughter that began the conflict, should be ashamed, as should the organs of disinformation that tried to cover eyes and to manipulate the public. But “shame” is a word that does not exist in their vocabulary.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru