Friday, 21 February 2025
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** Trump, Zelenskyy and the war on truth
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**
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Hello, readers. It’s Sarah here, as Jemimah is away this week. And what a week it’s been. The news has been dominated by the growing feud between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ([link removed]) , which has culminated in possibly irreparable relations between the presidents.

What started with a meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine (from which Zelenskyy was excluded) ended in a stream of disinformation coming from the leader of the world’s largest economy. Trump made several spurious claims chiming with those regularly churned out by Putin’s propaganda machine.

Among these were that Zelenskyy is a “dictator without elections”, that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion, and that Zelenskyy’s approval rating in Ukraine has plummeted to 4%, all of which closely mirror the Kremlin’s narrative. In response, Zelenskyy said that the US president is “trapped” within a Russian “disinformation bubble”.

Trump’s comments have been debunked by many world leaders, including Keir Starmer, who immediately came out in support of Zelenskyy as a democratically elected leader, and asserted that it is normal for presidential elections to be suspended during wartime (as happened in the UK during World War Two).

This exchange indicates a drastic reshaping in the geopolitical relationship between the USA and Russia, and indeed the USA and its key allies – but it also indicates a worrying affront to access to truthful information, the normalisation of false realities, and an acceptance of the suppression of free speech.

In what is often deemed Putin’s “war on truth”, the autocratic leader’s regime is notorious for crackdowns on journalism and free information. As well as blocking access to almost all social media websites and international news sites in Russia, his government has banned independent news outlets, with media now under government control. In doing so, he has been able to control the narrative of the war for his own citizens.

This is not to say that Ukraine itself has been a bastion of free expression. As reported by Amnesty International ([link removed]) , free speech restrictions in the country have increased since 2022, with 2,000 cases of individuals being charged, prosecuted or investigated for crimes such as “justifying Russian aggression against Ukraine”, including those who class themselves as pacifists.

But what Trump’s words do signal is a terrifying new world order where intentional mistruths are prioritised over fair, free and accurate information, not only by dictators, but by leaders who are meant to be upholding the principles of democracy.

Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, former US president Barack Obama delivered a speech ([link removed]) at Stanford University about the growing propagation of disinformation, and how it could endanger democracy. Autocratic leaders, such as Putin, have weaponised the power of the internet to obfuscate the truth and confuse the global public, he said. “You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing that citizens no longer know what to believe.”

Three years later, and we’re seeing this play out in real time, with the help of the current president of the USA. The sewage is spilling across the world, muddying the waters, and it will have global ramifications on what people believe to be undisputed fact.

Sarah Dawood

Editor, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
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Why can’t we just ban politicians from lying? ([link removed])

An outright ban on intentional deception would be unenforceable, lead to self-censorship and do nothing to tackle the disinformation plaguing social media, writes Emma Briant

“In a fascist regime, culture becomes propaganda”: concerns over growing censorship in Israel ([link removed])

Israeli filmmakers and academics have responded to the government’s crackdown on cultural institutions that depict the events of 1948 and showcase Palestinian history


** Tribute to Israeli journalist and human rights activist Oded Lifshitz ([link removed])
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The ardent campaigner for Palestinian rights was killed after he was taken hostage during the

7 October massacre


** Elon Musk’s attack on public broadcasters is destroying Reagan’s Cold War legacy ([link removed])
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Once lauded as bastions of American patriotism, media outlets such as Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are now being labelled enemies of the state


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** Nominate a freedom of expression champion
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Our Freedom of Expression Awards recognise those on the frontline of free expression and whose work has contributed significantly to confronting censorship – specifically in repressive regimes around the world.

In recent years, award recipients of these prestigious awards have included Toomaj Salehi, Malala Yousafzai, Cartoon Rights Network, and Abdelrahman ‘Moka’ Tarek.
NOMINATE TODAY ([link removed])


** From elsewhere
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** >> RUSHDIE: ([link removed]) “Elon Musk doesn’t defend free expression” ([link removed])
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** >> TECH: ([link removed]) “Precious record” of events like 2019 HK demos “to be lost” ([link removed])
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** >> KASHMIR: ([link removed]) Hundreds of books seized in Indian crackdown on dissent ([link removed])
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** >> IRAN: ([link removed]) Musician arrested after “insulting” Syria’s Bashar al-Assad ([link removed])
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** >> HONG KONG: ([link removed]) Oldest pro-democracy party plans to disband ([link removed])
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** >> MALTA: ([link removed]) MP blames Daphne Foundation for country’s corruption ranking ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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International Mother Language Day: Dying for the mother tongue ([link removed])

by Uradyn E Bulag ([link removed])

Index on Censorship, volume 49, issue 4 ([link removed])

On 21 February, the world marks International Mother Language Day, which promotes linguistic and cultural diversity.

In 2020, we reported on how a number of people in Inner Mongolia have taken their lives over the introduction of nationally-compiled Chinese language textbooks in primary and middle schools, which have been viewed as a threat to the Mongolian language. Read the article here ([link removed]) .


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work supporting individuals like Khosrow Azarbeig and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Mongolia, Hong Kong and Malta has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture and worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by Sipa US/Alamy Live News (Trump/Zelenskyy); Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street / CC BY 2.0 ([link removed]) / adapted (Mongolian school)

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