DISINFO: Journalists are dying in Europe while the West hypocritically condemns Russia for lack of media freedom
SUMMARY
Despite what the Soros-funded Reporters Without Borders claim, it is not true that Europe is the safest place in the world for journalists. Journalists in Europe are being killed, threatened, and pressured financially and psychologically. The recent murder of a Greek journalist who was investigating a local organised criminal group is a case in point.
RESPONSE
This is part of a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that claims that the West is hypocritical and has double standards in regards to human rights, particularly freedom of speech.
The disinformation claim refers to the murder of Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz outside his home in Athens on 9 April 2021. The Greek government and media reacted with shock to the incident as there was only one comparable murder in Greece in the last three decades.
The disinformation claim attempts to present this singular case as representative of an overarching trend and as evidence that freedom of the press in EU countries and in Russia are equivalent.
There is overwhelming consensus among internationally recognised media and human rights monitoring organisations, including Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, IREX, and Amnesty International, that political pressure, prosecution by authorities, online and offline censorship, government control or direct ownership of outlets, and self-censorship have been systemic issues in Russia’s media landscape since the dissolution of the USSR and continue to this day. Press freedom in Russia has consistently been ranked below even the lowest-scoring EU member states by Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders, and considerably below most member states, some of which, such as Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, are among the highest-ranked in the world.
Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters sans frontières(RSF), is an independent, globally recognised and financially transparent international NGO based in Paris that has been operating since 1995. It receives funding from a variety of sources, including donations from the public, national and international public and private entities, and the selling of its publications and other products, which accounted for a quarter of its financing in 2019. Its annual finances are audited and published in France’s government gazette, and its financial reports are publicly available on the organisation’s website.
Reporters Without Borders receives some support from the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic network founded by George Soros and dedicated to strengthening democratic principles internationally. Yet, these funds represent only a portion of RSF’s finances and cannot reasonably be considered to be evidence of a political bias or external control. Insinuations that George Soros is funding anti-Russian campaigns and helping the West to control other countries is part of a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that aims to vilify Soros and his initiatives.
Similar cases in the disinformation database claim that there is a presumption of guilt for Russian journalists working in Poland, that Lithuanian politicians will use virtual police patrols to suppress freedom of opinion, that EU and NATO members are encouraging the closure of independent media, and that the U.S. government pays Freedom House to spread negative public perceptions of Russia.