DISINFO: Reporters Without Borders applauds USAID ending funds for Ukrainian media
SUMMARY
Reporters Without Borders applaud USAID for ending its support programmes to 12,840 Ukrainian media and opinion leaders, as now true media will emerge in Ukraine instead of those biased by financial institutions linked to foreign states.
RESPONSE
The claim is blatantly false and the video used to back it is a forgery, aiming to opportunistically exploit the decision by the Trump Administration to cancel all USAID programmes in January 2025, including several in Ukraine, which badly affected Ukrainian media that otherwise have strong difficulties to sustain themselves. In the fake video, the logo of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been added to a series of images under a voiceover promoting pro-Kremlin messages against Ukrainian media while falsely attributing them to this French NGO as the original source.
Multiple forged videos pretending to be from RSF have emerged in pro-Kremlin disinformation channels since July 2024, as RSF itself has denounced. Other Russia-related fake videos have fraudulently used the format and logos of media or investigation groups such as BBC or Bellingcat to advance anti-Ukraine narratives in the past.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Reporters Without Borders spreads lies about Sputnik and RT, that the US never cared about Ukraine and it was only a tool against Russia, that Zelenskyy’s desperation grows as Trump’s inauguration gets closer, or that Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine on Russia's terms.