RSF launches The Propaganda Monitor, an investigative project on the geopolitics of propaganda
The fight against propaganda and disinformation is central to Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s battle to promote reliable journalism – which is why the media watchdog launched The Propaganda Monitor on 30 September 2024. This multimedia platform aims to expose the many faces and tactics behind propaganda worldwide, bolstering the public’s understanding of the information space and helping them navigate it more safely. The first season is devoted to Russian propaganda.
Promoting reliable journalism is the antidote to disinformation and propaganda. Reporting the facts about the perpetrators and tactics behind these falsehoods is the only way to stamp them out.
The Propaganda Monitor is an initiative led by RSF to inform the public about the mechanisms behind propaganda and disinformation and combat these underlying factors. The project is fed by exclusive contributions from international experts.
The first season will be devoted to Russian propaganda with a particular focus on RT, a Russian state media outlet that plays a key role in disseminating Kremlin-backed disinformation worldwide.
The Propaganda Monitor exposes how propaganda is created, disseminated, and transformed. It also proposes concrete solutions – aimed at both decision-makers and the general public – to combat propaganda, especially content that imitates journalistic formats to promote an ideology. Ultimately, this project seeks to uphold the right to reliable information – which is at stake across the globe.
Launched on 30 September, the Propaganda Monitor minisite will be regularly updated with brand new investigations, major interviews with leading propaganda experts, and articles profiling notorious propagandists.
"The launch of The Propaganda Monitor is the culmination of Reporters Without Borders' work combating all types of propaganda from the world’s most authoritarian regimes through our international network. While the project’s first season focuses on the Kremlin’s worldwide propaganda campaign, RSF is well aware this phenomenon is not limited to Vladimir Putin's agents. Our goal to expose the tactics that spread propaganda far and wide lies at the heart of RSF’s mandate: ensure every citizen, wherever they may be in the world, has access to reliable, independent and pluralistic information. The Propaganda Monitor’s investigations, major interviews and analyses of the geopolitics of propaganda will be the cornerstone of this mission.
A multimedia project, The Propaganda Monitor furthers RSF's work towards understanding the geopolitics of global propaganda and combating the spread of disinformation, especially content that uses journalistic formats to promote a political ideology.
The platform also includes RSF’s previous investigations and analyses on propaganda, such as the report on Alexander Malkevich, the investigation into how the Kremlin trains war "correspondents" to work in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and how RT is advancing its agenda in Africa. The minisite will be regularly updated with new content produced by RSF's international teams.
The project is head by a steering committee of international academics:
Maxime Audinet is a specialist in Russian politics. With a PhD in political science and Slavic studies, he is a research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School of France’s Ministry of Armed Forces (IRSEM). His research examines the influences affecting foreign policy in authoritarian states, with a particular focus on the actors and tactics behind Russia's influence on information in former Soviet countries, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of a book on the Russia’s state media outlet RT, (“Un média d'influence d'État: Enquête sur la chaîne russe RT”). In 2023, he co-founded the CORUSCANT research collective, which aims to rethink research on contemporary Russia.
David Colon is a professor and researcher at Sciences Po Paris and a member of the Internet, AI and society research group at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). A specialist in the history of the media and mass communication, he is the author of two award-winning books: “Propagande”, winner of the 2019 Akropolis prize and the 2020 Jacques Ellu prize, and La Guerre de l'information: Les États à la conquête de nos esprits”, winner of the 2024 La Revue des Deux Mondes prize, the 2024 La Plume prize, and the 2024 Corbay 2024 prize. As an expert, he is strongly committed to the fight against foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).
Valdez Onanina is editor in chief of the Dakar-based French-language desk of Africa Check, Africa's leading independent fact-checking organization, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa with offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. He was previously a journalist for the Senegalese news agency Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (APS) and has worked with several media outlets, including news site Jeune Afrique and Radio France Internationale (RFI).
Daniel Milo is an internationally recognised analyst and expert in the defense of democracy, with a specific focus on countering disinformation, hybrid threats and extremism. As expert in counter-disinformation at TechSoup Europe, he published or co-authored several publications on these issues including study on vulnerability of CEE countries to Russian influence, GLOBSEC Trends, analytical reports mapping the connections between Kremlin and far-right political actors and comprehensive analysis of Hybrid Threats in Slovakia. He previously worked as Director of Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats at Slovak Ministry of Interior, Adviser at OSCE-Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, Coordinator of anti-extremist policies at the Office of the Minister of Interior and Special Adviser to the Minister of Justice and the Head of STRATCOM Programme at GLOBSEC.
Rasa Nedeljkov is program director at the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), an NGO committed to promoting transparency, accountability and democratic governance. His work at CRTA mainly consists of developing programs to preserve the integrity of information, combat misinformation and counter propaganda and information manipulation. CRTA has developed innovative tools to help citizens recognize and resist propaganda.
Vladimir Rouvinski is a professor in the Department of Political Studies at Icesi University in Cali, Colombia. Before joining Icesi in 2007, he worked with educational and research institutions in Russia, Japan, and Colombia. He has also held research positions at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, and Florida International University in Miami, FL.
Dorka Takácsy is a researcher focusing on disinformation and propaganda in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. She is a visiting fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a research fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy. She is also pursuing a PhD at the Corvinus University of Budapest, researching Russian domestic disinformation about the West. She gained professional experience at the European Parliament, the Political Capital Institute in Budapest, the National Defense University in Washington.
The Propaganda Monitor also includes a section dedicated to RSF’s projects that combat propaganda directly, such as the Svoboda satellite bouquet – which provides 4.5 million households in the Russian Federation and 800,000 households in the occupied territories of Ukraine with access to reliable sources of information – and Operation Collateral Freedom, which unblocks censored media outlets via mirror sites. The Propaganda Monitor aligns with RSF's recommendations to combat foreign interference in the European Union’s information space.
To mark the launch of The Propaganda Monitor, RSF is publishing seven brand new articles, including an analysis of how RT, a Russian propaganda outlet, is spreading Kremlin propaganda in the Balkans despite sanctions, and an interview with researcher Vladimir Rouvinski on RT’s influence in Latin America. The profiles of two Russian propagandists, Italian globe-trotter Vittorio Rangeloni and Ukrainian Diana Panchenko, illustrate how the Kremlin spreads its influence internationally, and an original investigation traces the footsteps of missing journalists in Ukraine.
