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Russia Today
27-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Moscow calls for greater African media presence
Russia would welcome a greater presence of African media outlets in the interests of balance, Tatyana Dovgalenko, the head of the Department for Partnership with Africa of the Russian Foreign Ministry, has said. Dovgalenko made the statement during the opening of the African Horizons international forum in Moscow. The event, organized by the news agency African Initiative and the African Business Club, was held on May 24-26 to mark Africa Day. It brought together diplomats, business leaders, academics, and diaspora members. In a video address to participants, Dovgalenko noted that practical cooperation between Russia and African countries is progressing steadily across political, economic, and humanitarian spheres. She emphasized that the media plays a pivotal role in supporting this momentum, particularly by offering audiences a fair representation of international events. 'We are counting on the presence of African media in Russia to expand,' the diplomat stated. Russian media outlets, she said, are contributing to this by broadcasting in more than 40 African nations. 'We [Russia] will continue to support the consolidation of the continent's position as an independent center of power within the emerging multipolar world order,' she concluded. Earlier this month, Dovgalenko highlighted the historical foundations of Russia-Africa relations, noting that these ties are not recent developments but are rooted in the Soviet Union's backing of African liberation movements during the decolonization era. She also underscored Moscow's approach to partnership with Africa, contrasting it with that of other global powers. According to Dovgalenko, Russia does not treat Africa as a battleground for geopolitical rivalry, but as a space for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation. She stated that unlike some external actors, Russia refrains from pressuring African nations into taking sides or aligning with specific blocs. 'We respect their sovereignty and national interests not in words, but in deeds,' she stressed.
Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
China and Russia are deploying powerful new weapons: ideas
SIXTY LUCKY students got the chance to train as journalists last year at African Initiative, a new press agency in Bamako, Mali's capital. Trainees were given online and in-person lessons in reporting, with the promise that three of them would eventually be hired as full-time staff at the agency. The catch, as reported by Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists, was that African Initiative is run by Russian intelligence. Many Western countries are winding down their efforts to broadcast to the world. In March President Donald Trump pulled funding for Voice of America and its sister networks, and dismantled USAID, which funded thousands of journalists around the world. Public broadcasters' budgets have been trimmed everywhere from Australia to Canada and France. A battle of ideas is under way. As Western countries quieten down, others are speaking up. China and Russia are investing hundreds of millions or possibly billions on disinformation, Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, reportedly said on May 14th. 'The future of our cohesive, democratic society feels, for the first time in my life, at risk,' he said in a speech. He called for increased funding to double the reach of the BBC's World Service Eighteen months ago RT, Russia's state-controlled news network, launched a bold advertising campaign in countries including Mexico, India, Serbia and Tunisia. 'Why won't Britain return the Koh-i-Noor diamond?' asked an RT ad on the front page of the Times of India. Last year it opened the RT Academy, which trains journalists in Africa, South-East Asia and China. Sputnik, another state-run Russian news organisation, recently launched an Africa service. RT and Sputnik have been expanding in Latin America, where they share producers, camera crew and office space with Venezuela's Telesur and Iran's HispanTV, according to Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, an American think-tank. Smaller countries are distributing news around the world, too. Turkey's state-run TRT news network launched an Africa service in 2023, opening a Somali-language branch in March. It has been hiring former BBC staff, according to an ex-BBC reporter. Besides promoting Turkey's good deeds in Africa, where it invests in infrastructure and exporters arms, TRT delights in poking fun at former colonial powers. The biggest investment in foreign journalistic operations seems to have been made by China. Xinhua, a state-run news agency, has increased its Africa bureaus from a 'handful' two decades ago to 37 last year, according to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), a think-tank within America's defence department. Like Russia, it also offers training and scholarships to journalists: the China Africa Press Centre flies African reporters out to Chinese media outlets for ten-month assignments to absorb their newsroom culture. StarTimes, a Chinese firm, is now the second-largest digital-TV service in Africa. Chinese news is especially strong on social media. While American congressmen fret about TikTok, China appears to be relying on Facebook, an American social network, to spread its message internationally. The most-followed news organisation on Facebook is not CNN or the New York Times, but CGTN, China's state-run TV network, which with 125m followers is just ahead of Shakira, a pop star. Despite the fact that Facebook is banned in China itself, the five most-followed news organisations on Facebook are all Chinese, disseminating news in English (see chart). The Chinese organisations appear to have bought much of their reach using Facebook advertising. None of them is anything like as popular on other social networks. (On YouTube, for instance, the top four news channels are all Indian; on TikTok, the most-followed news account is Britain's Daily Mail, followed by Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya.) Facebook's ad library reveals a sophisticated operation, with Chinese outlets trying out multiple ads before pouring dollars into the most effective. Some ads are innocuous clickbait, showing off Chinese tourist hotspots. Others are politically charged: last year Xinhua paid Facebook to boost a story implying that Filipino fishermen in disputed waters were spies, with the hashtag #fishyfishermen. Does this kind of promotion count for much? A study in the Harvard Misinformation Review examined nearly 1,000 Facebook ads bought by Chinese state media in 2018-20, which were seen 655m times, mainly outside the rich world. The authors, Arjun Tambe and Toni Friedman, found that when a country saw more of these ads, its media produced more positive coverage of China—for instance, dubbing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong 'riots'. With exposure to more ads came more pro-Chinese coverage of subjects including covid-19 and China's economy. As well as distributing news under their own brand, countries are doing deals to insert their stories into local titles, which are often grateful for cheap content. Xinhua has an agreement with Kenya's Nation Media Group, giving it access to that firm's eight radio and TV stations, 28m social-media followers and 90,000 daily-newspaper readers in four African countries, according to the ACSS. RT reportedly has contracts with more than 30 African TV stations to broadcast its content. Russia is particularly keen on this kind of 'narrative laundering', in the words of Victor Ilie of Snoop, a news site in Romania. As audiences grow suspicious of outlets like Sputnik, Russia is increasingly co-opting influencers. Romania's presidential election was cancelled in December after its security agencies claimed to have uncovered a Russia-led influence operation on TikTok; in a re-run this month another pro-Russia candidate came first. Western countries still have loud megaphones. On YouTube, the BBC's Hindi-language channel has more followers than its English one; on Facebook its Burmese-language page has more followers than Fox News. And despite dwindling resources, independent journalists in contested regions are carrying on. Ziarul de Garda, a Moldovan outlet, has lost 40% of its salary budget since America stopped funding donors. Yet its boss, Alina Radu, is determined: 'We have a rule in our newsroom. Russia never gets relaxed about Moldova. So we have to never get relaxed as well.' Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Economist
15-05-2025
- Economist
China and Russia are deploying powerful new weapons: ideas
SIXTY LUCKY students got the chance to train as journalists last year at African Initiative, a new press agency in Bamako, Mali's capital. Trainees were given online and in-person lessons in reporting, with the promise that three of them would eventually be hired as full-time staff at the agency. The catch, as reported by Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists, was that African Initiative is run by Russian intelligence.
Express Tribune
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Marco Rubio shuts down US office fighting Russian, Chinese misinformation
The United States has closed its primary office for countering foreign disinformation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on 16 April, citing free speech concerns and allegations of domestic censorship. The office, originally launched as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, was later restructured as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), before becoming the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R/FIMI) in 2024. In a statement posted on X, Rubio said the office 'silenced and censored the voices of Americans' and cost taxpayers more than $50 million annually. 'I am announcing the closure of the State Department's Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference,' Rubio wrote. 'It actively silenced and censored the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.' Today, @SecRubio announced how we're protecting and championing free speech at the State Department. — Department of State (@StateDept) April 16, 2025 The decision comes amid longstanding Republican criticism of the office. Elon Musk, now serving as an adviser to President Donald Trump and heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously labelled the GEC 'the worst offender in U.S. government censorship.' Defenders of the GEC rejected those claims. Former Special Envoy James Rubin, who led the office until its closure, said it was focused solely on foreign interference. During Rubin's tenure, the office investigated Russian influence campaigns in Latin America, Africa, and Moldova, including a major operation known as the 'African Initiative,' which spread conspiracy theories about a U.S.-funded health programme. 'Many, many thousands, if not more, of people might have believed [the disinformation] and not received life-saving medical care,' Rubin told Politico in 2024. In June last year, the office helped launch the Ukraine Communications Group in Warsaw, a multinational project backed by over 20 governments, NATO, and the European External Action Service, aimed at countering Russian disinformation around the war in Ukraine. The National Endowment for Democracy estimates that Russia spends roughly $1.5 billion per year on global influence operations. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has said Moscow is responsible for 80% of disinformation efforts across Europe. During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, U.S. intelligence agencies reported that the Kremlin utilised unsuspecting American citizens and Russian PR firms to amplify falsehoods, according to the Associated Press.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US shuts down office combating Russian disinformation, Rubio says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on April 16 the closure of the State Department's office responsible for countering foreign disinformation, citing concerns about free speech and the rights of American citizens. The office started as part of the U.S. government's efforts to fight terrorist messaging online. It was first called the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. In 2016, it changed its focus to fighting lies and propaganda from foreign governments like Russia and China, and got a new name — the Global Engagement Center (GEC). In December 2024, the GEC was reorganized into the State Department's Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R/FIMI). In a post on X, Rubio said the center had overstepped its mission and worked to 'silence and censor' Americans. 'I am announcing the closure of the State Department's Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, formerly the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year and actively silenced and censored the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,' Rubio wrote. The move follows years of Republican criticism of the center. Billionaire Elon Musk, now an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in early 2023 called the GEC 'the worst offender in U.S. government censorship (and) media manipulation.' GEC leaders and defenders have rejected such claims. Special Envoy James Rubin, who led the center until its shutdown, said its mission was focused exclusively on foreign disinformation campaigns. The center ran projects in Latin America, Africa, and Moldova during his time in the office. One project focused on a major Russian disinformation campaign in Africa called the 'African Initiative,' which aimed at undermining trust in a U.S.-funded health program in the region. Russia recruited journalists, bloggers, and public figures to spread conspiracy theories across social media, websites, and Telegram channels. 'Many, many thousands, if not more, of people might have believed (the disinformation) and not received life-saving medical care,' had the campaign not been noticed sooner, Rubin told Politico in October 2024. In June 2024, the GEC helped launch the Ukraine Communications Group, a multinational initiative to counter Russian disinformation on the war in Ukraine, based in Warsaw and backed by more than 20 governments, NATO, and the European External Action Service. According to the National Endowment for Democracy, Russia spends an estimated $1.5 billion annually on foreign influence campaigns. In Europe alone, Moscow is believed to be behind 80% of such operations, according to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Kremlin was also leveraging unsuspecting Americans and Russian public relations firms to spread disinformation, U.S. intelligence officials told the Associated Press in July 2024. Read also: Musk's X platform faces potential $1 billion fine from EU regulators over disinformation violations, NYT reports We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
