European Parliament: Propaganda seeks to distort and divide

On Monday, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution stating that propaganda pressure on the EU from Russia and from Islamic terrorist organisations is growing.

The resolution also asserted that the pressure should be countered, not with more propaganda, but with positive messaging, awareness raising and education to increase the information literacy among EU citizens.

In the resolution, Members of the European Parliament noted that propaganda originating from the Kremlin seeks to distort the truth, incite fear, provoke doubt and divide the EU. The resolution expressed concern about the rapid expansion of pro-Kremlin disinformation. It notes that the Russian government uses a wide range of instruments to achieve their goals, such as think tanks, TV stations, social media and online trolls, among other things.

This wording sparked a response from Margarita Simonyan, head of Kremlin mouthpiece RT, who said the resolution was an attack on free speech and that it was poorly researched.