DISINFO: The East Stratcom Task Force and "Bild" journalists carry out "secret orders" from Western intelligence services
SUMMARY
The East Stratcom Task Force and "Bild" journalists carry out "secret orders" from Western intelligence services.
The similarities in names between the "Stratcom Dialogue" and institutions such as NATO's Stratcom, the Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence or the EU's East Stratcom Task Force are of course no coincidence, but rather an indication that the whining of incorrigible Russia-haters like Julian Röpcke about alleged Russian spies, who allegedly pose as journalists and carry out "secret orders" is just part of the usual mendacious whining of contemporaries who are so intensively connected to Western intelligence services that they already consider this parallel world as the true reality and strictly refuse to face the real world and consider all others as dangerous deviants.
RESPONSE
This message is a part of a broader Kremlin narrative accusing various European media and institutions of Russophobia and connections to secret services with the aim of eroding their credibility.
The East Stratcom Task Force and "Bild" journalists do not receive nor carry out "secret orders" from Western intelligence services. The East Stratcom Task Force was established following a mandate from the leaders of the European Union as a reaction to the post-2014 wave of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed against the EU member states and other countries of the region.
The East Stratcom Task Force is a part of the European External Action Service and is focused on the effective communication and promotion of European Union activities in Eastern Europe and it also addresses the Kremlin / pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns all over the world. For an account of the Task Force's work and the history of EUvsDisinfo see here.
Bild (Bild-Zeitung) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. It is the best-selling European newspaper and has the sixteenth-largest circulation worldwide. Bild is a part of a large German media landscape that represents a wide range of political opinions and does not have one single editorial policy for any country or topic.
Read more similar disinfo cases alleging that Germany has a serious problem with freedom of speech and that German media are Russophobic.