To write about war competently, one needs certain training and a long communication experience in this field – Butusov
To write about war competently, one needs to have certain training and a long communication experience in this field.
Censor.NET editor-in-chief, journalist Yuriy Butusov expressed this opinion in his interview to IMI.
"Of course, not all journalists can do this. Just as not all journalists can do professional investigations or write analytical reviews on some topics. People always expect us to self-organize in all situations," he explained.
Asked whether it is appropriate to blame the media for not sufficiently preparing the audience for a full-scale invasion, Yuriy Butusov noted that the journalists were going along with the authorities, which were denying the threat until the last moment.
"I can't blame my colleagues who were reading some alarmist calls, but at the same time looking at how President Zelensky spoke in January (I stress this), saying, 'Don't believe the alarmists and provocateurs – in May, we will be eating kebabs, resting and all will be well. You can't undermine the economy with panicmongering. Everything will be fine.' How can you blame the society and journalists for trusting the authorities. It was very believable – a massive information campaign. Again, the President's Office was putting pressure on the oligarchs' channels, forcing the main TV channels to only broadcast a doctrine which is beneficial to the government, saying that 'everything is fine, everything is peaceful – don't worry, we will figure everything out.' This was a case of our own government manipulating the public opinion, and journalists were only mirroring that. And this is also something that will have to be investigated," said Butusov.
He recalled that on February 22, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov officially declared that "there are no combat units on the border."
"I had to get into conflict with our authorities and write that the minister did not understand what he was talking about, as he was incompetent, as the combat units had been deployed, and this was a deliberate misrepresentation," noted the Censor.NET editor-in-chief.
As IMI reported, Ukrainian fighters discovered a fragment in the bulletproof vest used by Censor.NET editor-in-chief Yuriy Butusov on the front line.
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