The choice of words. As Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson on Friday, Russian journalists scrambled to cover one of Moscow’s biggest setbacks since the start of the war. A “historic day” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But how to qualify this day for Vladimir Putin, without risking going to prison?
“We rarely have the feeling of living in a bubble in Moscow as much as when there are these kinds of events, because we are far from all this excitement,” our correspondent Paul Gogo explained on BFMTV on Saturday.
According to the journalist, a “word of order” has indeed been passed to the media, politicians or even the military. Clearly, all people invited to speak on television should “not make it an event” and “treat this information as one small piece of information.” Even if it means presenting the loss of Kherson “as a necessary strategic withdrawal for the Russian army.”
This Saturday afternoon, the television channels talk about “elections in the United States”, broadcast “images in the Donbass” and explain to viewers “how reservists are trained”, our other correspondent on the spot lists on BFMTV. Jean-Didier Revoin. Objective: not to “feel sorry for the withdrawal of the Russians.”
“Certainly there is a doubt that will appear”
But not all journalists adhere to this line, and in Russia a lot of information circulates on social networks. Some journalists “did not hide their despair and tried to explain on their Telegram channel, [en dépit] prison sentences, that it was highly unlikely that the Russian army would ever return to Kherson,” said Paul Gogo.
For Vladimir Putin, the risk is indeed that Russian opinion will drift away, while part of the population has already had a hard time with the partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists in September and October. “There is this discontent that still exists, and it can be quite incomprehensible for the Russians to see that the only regional capital retaken last February is no longer under Russian control,” said Paul Gogo.
“Certainly there is a doubt that it will appear and be stronger and stronger among the Russians,” the journalist continues. From there to provoke the discontent of the entire population? “It is still too early” to say, judged Paul Gogo.
Russian television walks on eggshells
Russian television presenter Andrei Norkin addressed the dilemma of his profession during a speech last Thursday. “If I support the decision of the Ministry of Defense and say that it is acting correctly by leaving Kherson, then I publicly call for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity. In this case, I specially checked this morning, I face several years in prison,” the journalist said. .
“If, on the contrary, I do not support this decision (…) then I publicly discredit the armed forces. And I have approximately the same prison sentence. I do not want to go to prison,” Andrei Norkin assumed.
Since the beginning of the war, Russian journalists have been muzzled. On CNN this Saturday, a documentary filmmaker and TikTok activist testified about the censorship they refuse to implement.
“As a journalist, I think it’s my job to tell the stories and tell the truth,” said Vasily Kolotilov, director of the documentary “Putin’s War at Home.”
For her part, Natalia, an activist on TikTok, chose to leave the territory to express herself freely. “During my stay in Russia, I had to avoid words, topics. Considering the number of people who have been imprisoned for indecent things, this is always a concern for me,” Natalia testified.
800 kilometers from Ukraine, the international correspondent for Sky News, Alex Rossi, broadcast this Saturday the first videos of Kherson released and its inhabitants relieved.
Source: BFM TV
