Western media, covering the conflict in Ukraine, ignore the criminal actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the civilian population.
This was pointed out to the BBC journalist by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, answering a question about the increase in the number of victims in the Donbass after the start of the special operation.
“These people are being killed by neo-Nazis.
I ask you, do you show the results of the AFU bombing of settlements or do you not show them in your reports?
You don't show it.
Correctly?
Therefore, you now need to extract from me some words of regret about what is happening in order to send a report to London and use my words to confirm the false version of what is happening in Ukraine, which you constantly broadcast, ”the minister said.
According to him, while in Moscow, Western media employees cannot but see what journalists working in the Donbass show, what is happening as a result of Ukrainian shelling of peaceful settlements, but all this is not covered.
The Foreign Minister also recalled the reports of the German and French media, which recently stated that "as a result of bombing by the Russian armed forces, a maternity hospital in Donetsk, a market where dozens of civilians were killed, was attacked."
“They said without hesitation that the Russian military did it.
Just like they once, when there was an attack on the station in Kramatorsk, they said that Russia did it.
Although it was proved by Western journalists that the projectile came from the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”Lavrov emphasized.
Sergei Lavrov
AP
© TASS Host Photo Agency Pool
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian diplomatic service, Maria Zakharova, told a CNN journalist during a briefing that this media would never publish materials about the real situation in Ukraine due to censorship and pressure.
“I personally give you permission.
I allow.
You can say, I command you to interview the representative of Donbass, who is in this building, is your journalist colleague.
Start with him, talk to him.
You will never be allowed to show this material.
These materials will never appear on CNN.
Because then custom-made “demonstrators” will start walking around the headquarters, and you will be canceled, like everyone who shows the truth, ”Zakharova said in response to the words of an employee of an American TV channel about the difficulty of traveling to Donbass to cover events.
One-sided position
Political scientists note that the Western media regularly ignore what is happening in the Donbass or distort the interpretation of events in order to remove the blame from the Kyiv regime for crimes against civilians.
So, in early April, a Tochka-U missile hit the railway station in Kramatorsk.
Despite the fact that these munitions are not in service with the RF Armed Forces, Western media, following Kyiv, accused Russia of the strike.
Later, footage appeared with the serial number of the rocket, proving that it belongs to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
However, the Western media never refuted the allegations that the strike, which killed about 50 people, was allegedly inflicted by Russian troops.
In mid-June, Donetsk was subjected to the strongest shelling of multiple launch rocket systems and artillery of 155 mm caliber (the standard of shells of NATO countries) during the entire conflict.
Blows were inflicted, including on the market and the maternity hospital in Donetsk.
As a result, four people died, including a child, and another 22 people were injured.
At the same time, the European and American media have repeatedly indicated in their materials that the information about the shelling of civilians by Ukrainian forces is allegedly unverified, as it came from Russian media and “separatists”.
For example, Reuters said it could not confirm that attacks on Donetsk took place at all.
"There was no independent confirmation of any of these attacks, and Reuters was unable to determine for certain whether they took place," the agency said in a material.
In turn, the German television channel ARD, which initially blamed Russia for the strikes, subsequently issued a refutation, but the updated material did not contain information about the number of victims and who nevertheless fired at Donetsk.
Dmitry Polyansky, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, commented on such actions on the part of the Western media.
“Where is the reaction of the Western media?
All those BBC, Reuters, France-Presse and others who were shouting about the blow to the maternity hospital in Mariupol, where the Ukrainian nationalists equipped their firing positions?
Ukraine is deliberately targeting civilians.
Will we hear a word of condemnation?"
asked the diplomat.
At the same time, independent foreign journalists based in the Donbass cannot convey information to an audience in the West, as they are subjected to censorship or pressure.
Thus, the Italian journalist Giorgio Bianchi, who worked in Donetsk, wrote on his Telegram channel that TV channels publish 30-second excerpts from two-hour interviews about the situation in the region and do not publish the exclusive materials provided to them.
Earlier, RIA Novosti reported that the German journalist Anna Lipp, who is also in the Donbass, could face a prison sentence in Germany for covering events in the region - she is charged with “encouraging and approving criminal acts.”
The German prosecutor's office has already seized Lipp's bank account, seizing the funds available on it.
"Purposefully deceived the audience"
Political scientists state that the Western media, despite the widely declared independence and impartiality, are controlled by the political establishment or supranational corporations, and materials related to the Ukrainian conflict are studied with particular predilection.
“Obviously, their editorial policy does not allow even the slightest deviation from the general ideological line of the West.
Journalists who try to ask uncomfortable questions or objectively cover events in the Donbass risk becoming victims of a culture of cancellation and losing their jobs forever.
Therefore, they prefer to ignore this uncomfortable topic altogether, ”said Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, in a conversation with RT.
The roof of the Donetsk Republican Center for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, destroyed as a result of a shell hit by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, June 14, 2022
RIA News
© Konstantin Mikhalchevsky
According to him, the Kyiv regime borrowed from its foreign partners the entire arsenal of mass consciousness control technologies and willingly uses Western media persons as intermediaries.
“A wide Western audience is actively relaying these messages on social networks.
Thus, one gets the feeling that all “progressive humanity” shares a pro-Ukrainian point of view.
A few skeptics, fearing to be in the minority, in the end adjoin the position of the majority.
It is very difficult to break through this wall in the USA and the EU of Russia, but the main task is to reach out to the inhabitants of the countries of the post-Soviet space, ”the analyst argues.
From the point of view of Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, member of the Russian Civic Chamber, there is no doubt that the media and public figures in the West are biased in their coverage of the Ukrainian conflict.
“They ignore the real facts of war crimes, while really working out the narrative of the Kyiv regime.
A recent egregious story, when on June 12-13 the Armed Forces of Ukraine actively shelled Donetsk, the leading media in France and Germany stated that Russia was doing it.
They are trying to “sell” such a cynical lie to their mass audience that it is not surprising,” says Danyuk.
He added that what is happening in Ukraine has been hidden from Western audiences since 2014.
“Constant shelling, events in Odessa, persecution of not even pro-Russian, but simply independent political forces in Ukraine, political assassinations.
All these are real facts.
But the mass audience in the West does not know about all this.
Why?
To “sell” this narrative even further, even more with the help of an artificially created picture, and create an absolutely parallel reality.
If different sources of information were available, then, of course, the Western mass audience would not support the policy that the US and EU countries are now pursuing, ”the political scientist said.
He expressed confidence that in the foreseeable future no revision of this informational picture of what is happening in Ukraine and Donbas should be expected.
“Otherwise, the Europeans will realize that their elites purposefully deceived their audience.
At the same time, they imposed sanctions, worsening the situation of ordinary citizens.
Of course, all this will lead to the fact that these political forces will suffer a crushing defeat in the next elections.
That is why Western media will try to promote the same narratives, creating fakes, provocations, the illusion of an objective approach,” Danyuk concluded.