CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: Propagandistic EU hiring 'myth-busters' on Russian propaganda Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:25 am | |
| The job description, sent out on 20 March to EU states’ embassies in Brussels, says their task will be “correction and fact-checking of misinformation/myths”.
It will also involve “development and regular updating of EU ‘narrative’ via key messages/lines to take, articles, op-eds, factsheets and info-graphics, with an emphasis on communicating the benefits of the EaP”.
The EaP, or Eastern Partnership, is an EU policy on closer trade and political ties with six former Soviet countries.
The new staff are to be Russian speakers and to do “analysis/monitoring of reporting on EU policies” in Russian language media.
The group – between two and five people - will also prepare press “materials” in Russian.
They’ll be initially hired for one year and paid at least €4,350 a month. But they’ll be paid by whichever EU countries put them forward because EU institutions have not earmarked any money for the project.
The job description notes they should be former journalists or press officers and know their way around “social media and infographics”.
The move comes after EU leaders, in March, tasked the foreign service “to challenge Russia's ongoing disinformation campaign”.
They said the EU should “prepare, by June, an action plan on strategic communication in support of media freedom. The establishment of a communication team is a first step in this regard”.
Russia’s media machine was on show in Moscow on Thursday (16 April) when Russian president Vladimir Putin held his annual public Q&A session.
Most questions focused on Russia’s flagging economy, the rising cost of food and medicines, or problems with housing and social services.
https://euobserver.com/foreign/128352 |
|