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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 09.05.2024, 00:47

Estonian, Lithuanian, Danish and British FMs want EU action plan against Russian propaganda

BC, Tallinn, 14.01.2015.Print version
Estonian Foreign Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus together with Lithuanian, Danish and British Foreign Ministers will submit a joint letter to the European Union High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini, proposing to put together an action plan to tackle the Russian propaganda, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

Pentus-Rosimannus, Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond have prepared proposals to be presented to Mogherini before the January 19 Foreign Affairs Council meeting where European Union foreign ministers will discuss the EU-Russia relations.

 

The Foreign Ministers note in the working paper that Russia has recently intensified significantly spreading misinformation and propaganda in order to find both domestic and foreign support for its political and military objectives.

 

The Foreign Ministers say that such disinformation campaign is of large scale and uses the state-controlled television, as well as "internet trolls".

 

"The aim is to discredit the European narratives, reduce support for legitimate governments, demoralize local population, mislead Western policymakers and ridicule the free, independent and pluralistic media concept. The campaign spreads the message that Russia is the victim of Western conspiracy and Western countries aim to repress Russia," the letter bearing the signatures of the four ministers says.

 

Foreign Ministers thin that Russia is trying thus to drive a wedge among Russians and other population of European Union Eastern countries. This poses a real threat, they say.

 

The foreign ministers offer a series of proposals for confronting the Russian propaganda.

 

Among other things, they call for the European Union to start a discussion on the highest level, on what to do about the Russian propaganda. For example, they propose to organize the Eurobarometer surveys in all Member States, in order to analyze the resilience of public to information manipulation.

 

Also, they recommend creating a pan-European media platform, such as a website where experts, politicians, analysts and activists are able to draw attention to cases of manipulation of information and analyze them. Cooperation between Member States and the exchange of information in this area should be increased. Reliable information should reach those who are using Russian state-controlled media as their main information source. Also, the awareness of European media organizations of dangers of information manipulation has to be increased.






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