Dozhd TV, a Russian channel operating in the European Union, used the Russian state authorities’ vocabulary, such as “high treason” (госизмена) and “SMO” (Special Military Operation), in a Facebook post reporting about a Russian court’s ruling convicting Svitlana Loi, a resident of occupied Berdiansk, journalist Inna Gadzynska pointed out.

The post by Dozhd TV post states that an occupation court sentenced the 72-year-old woman to 14 years in prison for donating 1,500 hryvnias ($33,68) to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The channel’s news draws on data by the Russian police and features footage from a hearing in the case.

According to Gadzynska, the channel used the Russian authorities’ vocabulary to present the story, failing to disclaim that imprisoning civilians in occupied territories constituted a war crime. The journalist noted that the channel quoted rulings by the occupation authorities without giving the necessary context.

“But here’s how they report that the Russian occupation authorities have jailed a Ukrainian woman from occupied Berdiansk for 15 years for making a donation to the UAF from her Ukrainian pension. They tell this story using quotes from the court’s rulings and Russian propaganda, legitimising the occupation state bodies, without explaining that what was done is a war crime,” the journalist wrote.

She added that the news included no information about the convicted woman herself and featured quotes from Russian security agencies:

“They say nothing about who Svitlana Loi is or how she reacted when she was allowed to speak at the hearing. Why would they; all there is is the occupiers’ vocabulary and extensive quotes from them: SMO, ‘the investigation’s version,’ ‘high treason,’ and so on,” the journalist wrote.

Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, believes that the news outlet’s use of the Russian authorities’ vocabulary without quotation marks, distancing, or proper explanation effectively reproduced Russian propaganda framing and created a false impression that the occupiers’ actions were lawful.

“A Ukrainian woman in occupied territory cannot be a ‘high traitor’ for supporting the armed forces of her own country, and a Russian ‘court’ in Berdiansk cannot be presented as an ordinary judicial institution. In this situation, the task of journalism is not just to relay the Russian investigation’s statement but to clearly explain the status of the occupied territory, the illegality of the Russian institutions installed there, and the context behind the persecution of a civilian,” IMI director said.

IMI has previously reported on Dozhd TV’s violations of journalistic standards, examining how the channel justified Russia’s crimes.

The Institute of Mass Information has called on international media organisations and European broadcasting regulators to take a considered approach to all information outlets, and not to label media as “liberal” or “pro-opposition” simply on the basis of their disapproval of the Kremlin’s move to start a full-scale invasion.

Previously

On 1 December 2022, Alexey Korostelev, host of the Dozhd TV programme “Here and Now”, encouraged viewers to speak out about the problems faced by Russian soldiers on the battlefield and expressed hope that the channel had helped many servicemembers with equipment procurement. After the clip from the livestream gained traction online, chief editor Tikhon Dzyadko said that it had been cut from the episode and stated that Dozhd “has not, does not, and will not help equip the Russian army — on the battlefield or beyond it.”

Following this, Latvia’s National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) revoked Dozhd’s licence (as the channel had been speaking from Latvia). However, on 22 December 2022, Dozhd TV was granted a licence to broadcast within the EU. This decision was made by the Netherlands’ Commissariat for the Media.