The IMI's tasks include gathering evidence for a future prosecution of Russian propagandists – Oksana Romaniuk

Photo: National Media Talk

The information collected by the Institute of Mass Information should be used to prosecute Russian propagandists, particularly at the international level. The IMI executive director Oksana Romaniuk spoke about this on the United News telethon.

"What Russia's information systems are producing – I cannot call them media – actually points to many crimes: genocide (because there are direct calls to exterminate Ukrainians, to strike the infrastructure, abduct Ukrainian children, etc.), crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. We are collecting all this, we are working quite actively with law enforcement agencies. We are very happy that such information that we collect is being processed. We hope that it will not only be processed at the national level and that in the future we will see these propagandists on the bench of an international tribunal," said Oksana Romaniuk.

The IMI director noted that aggressive propaganda cannot be overcome simply by debunking fakes. "We have encountered this evil, we are analyzing it, and we fully realize that this evil needs a legal assessment and a legal response," she added. "I hope that what we are doing now will change the international approaches to aggressive propaganda and the Kremlin's genocidal rhetoric."

Oksana Romaniuk also hopes that the work of the IMI, the law enforcement agencies, the other colleagues and organizations will contribute to the emergence of "cultural genocide" as a concept in international law, as to date it is yet to be approved at the international level.

As a reminder, on November 1 at 12:00 p.m., the IMI will host a press conference "Disinformation and genocidal rhetoric: how is Russia fighting Ukrainians in the media space?" at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center (Kyiv, 8/16 Bohdana Khmelnytskogo St.). A livestream of the event will be available online.