Photo: Raskrinkavanje.ba
One year into the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Raskrinkavanje published a series of analysis of disinformation narratives that appeared in BiH and the region.
In this report, we give insights into the most prominent disinformation narratives identified by the fact-checking platform “Raskrinkavanje” in 2022. These narratives have predominantly been in circulation in the media and social media space in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but have also been present in the neighboring countries belonging to the same language area in the region of Southeast Europe.
Among them, narratives related to the invasion of Ukraine stand out in intensity and relevance. Out of eight such narratives identified in the work we did in the past year, seven parrot the official Russian state narratives and war propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine and only one holds content favorable to Ukraine, mostly the morale-boosting stories about wartime heroes (for example, the famous “mythical” pilot dubbed “Ghost of Kyiv”). When taken together, they create the largest narrative group in the sample produced by our fact-checking work from January to October 2022.
In a series of analyses published in January and February 2023, the Raskrinkavanje team has provided a detailed overview of the 6 dominant narratives about the war in Ukraine that emerged from the platform’s fact-checking work during 2022.
The starting point for most of the themes seen in these narratives were the speeches given by Vladimir Putin on the eve of the invasion, reinforcing the propaganda that has been present since Russia first attacked and annexed a part of Ukraine’s territory in 2014. These speeches provided a blueprint for most, if not all, of the narratives that were to follow in the coming months, promoted by Russian officials, state-controlled media and their proxies and/or sympathizers in other countries, including those in the SEE region.
Read the full report at this link.
