No country’s state financed media is perfect and some are far from perfect. And yet for self-evident geo-strategic reasons, western state financed, as well as private media have for around three years, run a constant campaign of what can only be called abuse against state financed Russian media outlets, the most famous of which is RT (Russia Today).
And yet, whilst some neutral observers might be inclined to refrain from criticising the mistakes made by official international Russian media because of the their one-sided treatment at the hands of western outlets, when it comes to Kashmir, Russian state financed media has gone too far.
Perhaps the term “gone too far” is actually too polite a phrase to use in order to describe what outlets like RT have done since the beginning of this month’s flaring up of tensions in Kashmir. In reality, Russian outlets have fallen off the cliff.
There have been multiple instances of Russian media repeating verbatim, India claims which have later been exposed as false or at other times are based entirely on hearsay rather than on verified evidence. Likewise, the opinion segments on Russian outlets are seemingly 95% pro-India.
Fortunately, the Naya Pakistan government is mature enough to see past the propaganda and realise that like China, Russia seeks nothing but de-escalation of conflict in south Asia.
It is therefore a supreme pity that Russian media is letting itself, its government and its international audience down by presenting views which are beginning to look like little more than BJP propaganda with some mild Russian characteristics.
If the Russian state controls RT as much as it is alleged to do, the Foreign Ministry ought to make sure that RT’s converge begins to reflect the perspective of the Russian government rather than the Indian government.
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Article Originally Published in: https://eurasiafuture.com
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Independent Press.
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