Ukraine TV show fights fake news from the Kremlin

Chris Jasurek
By Chris Jasurek
March 31, 2017World News
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Journalists at a niche media, “StopFake,” have been working meticulously to identify and break down fake stories about Ukraine constantly generated by pro-Kremlin media.

Designed as a satirical news broadcast, the “StopFake” project was launched in 2014, just before Russia annexed Crimea.

Marko Suprun, StopFake anchor and Canadian journalist with Ukrainian roots, said satire is a good way to debunk fake news, “A lot of the stuff that’s coming out of the Kremlin is just ridiculous and therefore very funny. But people actually believe some of this stuff and this is a problem clearly. So I think sometimes the comedic element or adding a little bit of satire is a good way to get people to get their defenses down to see that: ‘Yeah, you know what? Maybe Ukraine isn’t responsible for the Iodine-131 that’s been floating around Europe.”

The project was started by the Dean of the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism in its basement.

It has since grown into a niche media organization with a team of 27 staff across Europe.

“StopFake” now operates in 10 languages across website services, including English, German, French, and Portuguese.

The newscast is aired on 30 Ukrainian TV stations.

Yevhen Fedchenko, StopFake co-founder, said the niche media came into existence at a crucial time for Ukraine, “It was really the issue of existential survival for our country back in 2014, and it’s still an open issue—we still need to struggle to keep our sovereignty. And the second issue was very journalistic, because when we are dealing with disinformation, disinformation is killing journalism, fake news is killing journalism.”

Initially crowd-funded, “StopFake” now receives financial backing from the British Embassy in Kyiv and the Open Society Foundation established by businessman George Soros.

“StopFake” recently launched a monthly newspaper named Your Right to Know.

The newspaper will cater to residents in the eastern Donbass region on the Russian-Ukraine border.

 

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