Nobel laureate Muradov: Propaganda ‘cook of war’ | NDR.de

Status: 03.05.2022 06:00 AM

On Freedom of the Press Day, the editor-in-chief of the critical Kremlin newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, Dmitry Muratov, commented on the state of the media in Russia. The state’s propaganda is the “War Chef”.

by Marika Aden

For years, the editorial team of “Novaya Gazeta” gathered under black and white photos of their dead colleagues, including a photo of Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006. The Russian newspaper, critical of the Kremlin, continued to report: abuse of power and corruption, as well as in particular On the top. Now it is the Russian war against Ukraine that worries the editor-in-chief and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov.

Novaya Gazeta can no longer report in Russia

In a video message on Press Freedom Day, which he recorded for NDR, Morato asks: “How did we get there – shattered futures, destroyed cities? An endless mass exodus of refugees? 12 million people have already fled. How did we end up with these endless processes?” Her to exhume the bodies of Ukrainian civilians?

now at all times”Novaya Gazeta” in Russia. New censorship laws introduced in the aftermath of the war make this impossible. For Muratov, the Kremlin’s crackdown on independent media is directly linked to the war.

Dmitry Muratov: witness to “propaganda irradiation”

“I have witnessed how an entire people, our people, have undergone a successful experiment in the twenty-first century: exposure to propaganda,” says the journalist. “In the absence of independent media, propaganda always begins with the preparation of war. Propaganda is the chef of war. Propaganda is war itself.”

And propaganda is in full swing in Russia at the moment, especially on state television, which is still the main source of information for the vast majority of people. The Kremlin’s strategy appears to be working, says Russian communications scientist Anna Litvinenko, who teaches at Freie Universität in Berlin: “Like many other communication scholars, I was very surprised that an audience that had always owned this island of press freedom, could be created to conform in this way.”

Two historical accounts are used for enemy images

Reports, moderations and talk shows on state television repeatedly point to the “extremists in Kyiv” and the need to discredit and demilitarize Ukraine. Rather, the country is deprived of its right to exist as a real state. According to Litvinenko, there is a long-term propaganda strategy behind this.

“There are two historical events that have been constantly exploited by the Putin regime for years,” said the communications scientist. “On the one hand, World War II with victory at the end, where all the narratives about de-Nazification and disarmament come from, and on the other, the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both events are used to create images of the enemy.”

Almost immune to other information

Anyone who has been exposed to publicity for years will eventually become almost immune to other information. Stop looking for them and accept them, Litvinenko said. “I see a psychological protection mechanism where people simply refuse to search or take information that would break down their world.”

Litvinenko says things currently look bleak for press freedom in Russia. Media like Novaya Gazeta may have a small audience, but their readers are from the country’s educated elite, who can bring about change.

Muratov’s predictions: “Decades of hostility”

The editor-in-chief of “Novaya Gazeta” believes that the war and propaganda have put Russia in a “decades-long state of hostility” with Ukraine and large parts of the world. In mid-May, Muratov will auction his medal for the Nobel Peace Prize for helping people who have fled the war in Ukraine. For him, this is something he can do so that he does not feel completely helpless.