Information war is a term used by the Kremlin to justify disinformation, Dobrokhotov says
In 2018, Roman Dobrokhotov of The Insider received the Journalism as a Profession award in the Investigative Journalism category for the investigation into the Salisbury attack.
Disinformation vs. Propaganda
Disinformation and propaganda are two completely different things. Propaganda highlights the events that are favorable to the authorities, while disinformation spreads falsehoods. As a rule, disinformation is intentional – it is deliberately spread by someone, who knows that he or she is deceiving the audience.
Dobrokhotov says
The term “disinformation” became widespread after the Cold War, and it was taken from the Soviet lexicon. It is very much a Soviet concept, which was used not only in the context of the media but also in the context of the work of the KGB: there were special units of the KGB which engaged professionally in disinformation – by the way, they still exist nowadays, just in a different form. There are parts of [Russia’s military intelligence agency] the GRU whose task is to officially conduct disinformation campaigns.
Dobrokhotov says
The besieged fortress
The main goal [of the Kremlin’s disinformation] is to discredit the enemy or bring discord into the enemy camp. Disinformation is, in fact, a military concept: when you spread propaganda and disinformation leaflets behind enemy lines, you do it because you consider it part of an “information war.”
Dobrokhotov says
