I am writing about one such campaign, but it’s
by no means exclusive. It demonstrates the technology of how anyone
can be accused of anything and attempt to legalize these lies through
the media space in the country.
The campaign in question was primarily started
against the Renaissance Foundation of George Soros, the billionaire
hilanthropist, as well as other non-government organizations who
cooperate with the opposition, as well as individual civic activists.
The point of the campaign is to once again accuse the civic
organizations and foreign foundations in assisting the opposition and
of corruption.
One spring morning, a little-known Internet
site was created, it seems, especially to criticize anyone who
stepped on the toes of the authorities. It printed a story called
“Why Grants Do Not Move Ukraine Closer to EU.” Among other
things, this story expressed doubts that certain civic organizations
made proper use of their grants, and named the alleged culprits –
members of parliament Hryhoriy Nemyria, Andriy Shevchenko and Mykola
Tomenko of the opposition Batkivshchyna Party, as well as my name as
the director of Institute of Mass Information.
Next came a classical advertising campaign for
this story. It was actively reprinted by dozens of similar
little-known sites, which in Ukraine’s journalistic slang are
referred to as “flushing tanks.” Then, the same story appeared in
the print media, read by the more conservative public. Segodnya
daily, with a print run of 155,000 copies daily amazingly printed
this story marked as advertising.
The newspaper said that the advertiser carries
responsibility for the information. I asked chief editor Igor
Dobrovan who is the advertiser who is not sparing cash on ads against
me and the Renaissance Foundation. It would seem that this issue is
not in the interests of any commercial organizations.
I am yet to receive an answer, otherwise it
will be rather difficult to figure out who is in charge of spreading
lies about “the stealing of the grant” which neither I, nor my
organization ever received.
The
author of the material is some “Lithuanian expert Andrzej
Butkus,” who has no trace on the Internet,
except in relation to the grant story in Ukraine. This element of
anonymity is typical for such campaigns as nobody wants to take
personal responsibility.
Sometimes this type of information makes it to
some English-language sites, but again, usually as advertising
banners. This is needed to feed a new cycle of the campaign, along
the lines “Europeans are talking about financial misdemeanor of
Hryhoriy Nemyria.” The enter the “experts” to discuss this
problem further.
This is a typical scheme used to discredit any
influential organization or activist when their activity starts to
show palpable facts of abuse by the authorities. The campaign is
needed to kill the trust in the Ukrainian society to various
individuals and structures who prove to be effective, and – most
importantly – independent.
The scheme is often used against independent
media and journalists of Ukrainska Pravda online website, Zerkalo
Nedeli weekly, TVi channel. The organizers don’t spare cash on hiring
people often referred to as “political analysts” who work for
those in power who, among other things, are in charge of the image of
the Ukrainian government abroad.
Creation of a positive image is a more
complicated task, which requires actual positive, adequate and
responsible actions. When these actions are nowhere to be found, it’s
easier to discredit the opponents, making the point that the country
has no alternative, and investigations and probes into the actions of
the government will make no good.
The worst thing is the campaigns are based on
fiction. The grant that I was accused of stealing was actually given
to Korrepondent website to create a national network of bloggers, and
they are doing well in completing this task.
The lies are usually printed by pet websites
that will print anything. It’s almost impossible to find who’s in
charge of these sites, but the stories pop up through a simple search
with a search engine, which is the goal.
The system requires a lot of
resources to support, but it creates a virtual reality in the country
that suits its authors.
Viktoria
Siumar is the director of the Institute of Mass Information in Kyiv.
