25 June 2024

Crimea must reappear in foreign media discourse beyond the context of hostilities – experts

During the panel discussion entitled “(In)visible Crimea: What Foreign Media Write About,” Media Center Ukraine presented a study on how exactly the topic of Crimea is covered in foreign media. After analyzing more than 4,000 materials, experts concluded that the topic of Crimea for foreign media is primarily centered around the war.

“However, we need to draw the attention of foreign media to the topics of political persecution, imprisonment, and the situation in Crimea – because these are really the issues that the world should see. We need to work with this and ‘sell’ these topics to foreign media. Because it is crucial that these topics get wider coverage,” said Olha Atamanova, Strategic Director of Media Centre Ukraine.

Volodymyr Liashenko, representative of the National Council in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, emphasized that the Ukrainian expert community should serve as the primary source of information on Crimea.

“Currently, we have a situation where, due to the lack of access to the territory of the peninsula, Ukraine cannot compete with the information published by russia, even if it is distorted. Therefore, we should at least provide sources of information,” he said.

At the same time, experts acknowledge that russia invests significant amounts of money in its propaganda, making it challenging to counter.

“Unfortunately, there is very little information about Crimea. However, we must note one thing, we have been evaluating russian propaganda for a long time and they did so well that now a number of international partners won’t consider the issue of Crimea at all,” said Anayit Khoperiya, Deputy Head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine

“russia operates a formidable propaganda machine with extensive resources and works in places where we can’t speak loudly about the problems of Crimea,” added Iryna Baran, International Advocacy Manager of the Crimean Human Rights Group.