Balance in RussiaUkraine reportage
YOUR international correspondent Gwynne Dyer, in his column (ODT,
23.8.22) discussing the murder of the Russian journalist/philosopher Darya Dugina, opines she was ‘‘just another cheerleader’’ for Russia's military operation in the Ukraine.
Given the obvious conclusion that this assassination was carried out on orders from the Ukrainian government, he asks, ‘‘Will it harm the Ukrainian cause in terms of public opinion elsewhere?’’, then answers himself, ‘‘A little bit, maybe, because blowing young women up is never a good look, but probably only for a short time.’’
These remarks contrast greatly with the hoarse tone of deep moral outrage exhibited by Mr Dyer and other
Western journalists upon certain occasions in past years when a murder or attempted murder of a journalist or political opponent critical of the government led by Vladimir Putin has been imputed to supposed covert orders from the Russian government itself — ‘‘proof’’ of authoritarianism and an attack on democracy and freedom of the press.
However, one notes also in passing that members of the Western press have not been nearly as assiduous in attacking the muzzling and judicial torture of their colleague Julian Assange. And Mr Dyer's flippancy and cynicism concerning Ms Dugina surely illustrates a very real, very nasty form of ‘‘cheerleading’’ — among many other forms of the art — to which the public in Western countries, including New Zealand, have been subjected in the past six months.
This also is ‘‘freedom’’ of the press. Jack Pritchard
Palmerston