"Putin and Zelenski are the spearheads of their own information battles"
On the occasion of its Communication Week, Europea Media organised a round table with journalists expert in international information to deal with the broadcasting of the war in Ukraine in its live programme. The panel of experts, moderated by Rosa María Mateos, was composed by Javier Martín Dominguez, journalist with a great experience in the coverage of international conflicts and member of the International Press Club; Javier Fernández Arribas, director of Atalayar and Fernando Ávila, professor at the European University and international journalist.
The round table entitled "Information and Network Warfare in Ukraine", dealt with how the media and fans report on the open war following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February. A war that many, as the speakers agreed, call the "first in situ war". Mobile phones and the internet have become the main tools and channels for disseminating content from the frontlines.
"Not only mobile phones, but also satellites," said Martín Dominguez, the first speaker. "Technology is allowing powers to follow the movement of troops live. With clarity and exact geolocation. It is a change for public information, and also for military intelligence," he added. Information that, according to Martín Domínguez, the states involved in the war are "controlling and filtering a lot". He referred to one of his favourite books, "The First Casualty", to remind us that the first victim of wars is the truth, a constant since the nineteenth century Crimean War, which featured the first war journalist in history. "If a side does not hide or control the truth, it is giving the enemy the upper hand".
Martín Dominguez pointed out that something very significant in the Ukrainian conflict is the role of the opposing leaders, Putin and Zelenski. Both are major media protagonists and actors in the control of information. "We are seeing two masters of information control. Putin and Zelensky. It is unprecedented. Two heads of state spearheading the information battle".
The tight control being exercised over information coming out of Ukraine is a point on which Javier Fernández Arribas agrees with his colleague Martín Dominguez. "They are not allowing journalists to go to the front line of the battle. We mainly receive images of the results of the bombings, but it is not like in Bosnia or Kosovo," said Fernández Arribas.
Zelenski is using information in a similar way to the Bosnian separatist government during the siege of Sarajevo in the Yugoslav war, according to Fernández Arribas. "The government had three television crews ready to go out and record the results of enemy bombardments. They did what we called 'shopping', that is, as soon as the bombing was over, they obtained material of the destruction caused by the attack, to later send these images to Western television channels. In this way, the Sarajevo government had something to negotiate with and ask for international intervention, as happened later," Arribas said, and compares this situation in the 1990s with the situation that Zelenski is facing in 2022 in order to obtain support and weapons from Western countries. Martín Dominguez added that "it is a war that is raising many sensations and emotions. It has revived NATO and has brought the European Union closer together because of the presence of a common enemy".
The director of Atalayar also praised Zelenski's appearances in Western parliaments and at the Doha Forum. According to Fernández Arribas, Zelenski's achievement is that he manages to evade Russian missile attacks. "Someone must be helping Zelenski by providing sufficient technical assistance to encrypt his broadcasts. If Russia were to pick up Zelenski's signal, it might be able to bomb his position and neutralise him," he summarised, as happened with the Russian journalist killed in Kiev by a precision missile.
The roundtable also commented on Russia's visibly poor military capabilities in this conflict. Far less than expected from the world's second largest military power. Outdated radios that allow the Ukrainians to intercept communications, shoddy civilian vehicles or a logistics line incapable of supplying the troops, who abandon their armoured vehicles or retreat in disarray. "In the meantime, Russia is showing off its latest technological milestones, and we don't know to what extent they are real".
As the three journalists agreed, the information being given and interpreted from the Russian side of the conflict must be totally different from what is perceived from the Western side. Not to mention, as Martín Dominguez analyses, the Russian context and its population.
From what the speakers commented, there is a gulf between the Western and Russian views, except for the country's elites, who constitute a clear minority. Russians, with television largely controlled by the state, see the Ukrainian war through the prism of propaganda that for years has extolled the achievements of the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, and a glorious past.
A vision that, as the speakers lamented, sometimes even penetrates the West, a situation that needs to be guarded against.