Editorial: banning Kremlin’s lies

Photo: Karikatuur: Urmas Nemvalts

Doubtless, experiences of Latvia and Lithuania in combating Kremlin’s propaganda deserve Estonian attention.

Here, also, the same channels rife with war propaganda are shown. Even so, our Baltic neighbours have opted for a differing approach. In Latvia and Lithuania alike, broadcasting of the TV channel RTR Rossiya was banned, starting April, for three months. Other steps to restrict Kremlin’s propaganda were taken as well. For instance, a Lithuanian court banned the TV channel Pervyi Baltiiski Kanal (PBK) for three months as early as October last year, after a PBK programme denied killings by Soviet soldiers in Vilnius on January 13^th 1991.

Clearly, Russian TC channels are controlled by Kremlin are airing war propaganda and extremely biased and at times totally fabricated clips on events in Ukraine – such as are impossible to be called news in the sense of free media. While Estonia is at the top of media freedom lists, Russia has stayed at the bottom of the international rankings for years – in the company of other authoritarian and dictatorship states, as a non free land. Over this past year, media freedom in Russia has taken a decided turn for the worse and after the occupation of Crimea the propaganda has an added touch of ugliness: it is no longer the Ukrainians that are painted as enemies, but the whole free world. Estonia’s assessment of the propaganda channels is no different from those of Latvia and Lithuania. Still, our solutions do differ.

In Estonia, a ban has not been imposed claiming that it would not be effective: the banned channels would then be viewed via satellite or over the Internet; and the ban, it was claimed, would actually yield the opposite effect – for the simple reason that bans have a habit to breed curiosity; also, the act of banning may draw extra propaganda-attacks. Indeed: the Kremlin, having trampled media freedom underfoot at home, is ever ready to appeal the free world values when their propaganda attacks are restricted. This, in general, is a foreign policy tool of theirs: accuse others in what you are doing, or are planning on doing.

But what about interest towards the banned channels? There is no one single answer. In Latvia, the banning of RTR immediately increased popularity of Pervyi Baltiiski Kanal. The latter, however, is a channel produced in Latvia which, in case of violations, may be impacted by Latvian judicial power. Also, the ban increased purchases of devices to receive satellite channels. Even so, it is hard to assess how massive that was.