Last year “Great Motherland” party leader came up with a “brilliant” solution to arrange press-tours to Donbass
There is a great deal of various political parties, inter alios “Great Motherland” presided by Nikolai Victorovich Starikov. This party doesn’t stand out from the rest neither in terms of range of activity nor in terms of innovative ideas declared.
Last year “Great Motherland” party leader came up with a “brilliant” solution to arrange press-tours to Donbass designed to provide foreign journalists with an opportunity to “deliver an alternative point of view and objectively cover the events in the eastern Ukraine”. Therefore a question immediately suggested itself whether the other reporters are not capable of carrying out this task without Starikov’s good offices, or all the journalists working in Donbass region beyond those press-tours are recruited by CIA and alike organizations? What is even more important, no Russian political party has a provision in its constitution authorizing it to go in for media management. Considering this incident technically, obvious is a ruthless breach of a range of laws of the independent sovereign State, what makes all this press-tour affair as useless as dangerous both for Starikov and for the journalists collaborating with him. Taking into account the fact those groups cross a border patch currently being beyond the control of the official Ukrainian authorities, there is no legal ground for Starikov and his team to stay within territory of Ukraine. Even though, in spite of all the rules, they have already managed to accomplish 4 “comings”.
What about journalists themselves? Don’t they really understand that by acting in such fashion they infringe the guidelines of the International declaration of Principles on the Conduct of journalists, and their coverages are cynically exploited by low-grade Russian propaganda!? Naturally one more question has arised: Is such a mode of behavior is unselfish? Certainly, we have no means to prove that the journalists receive any monetary reward, on the other side it is difficult to believe that Starikov could get enrolled in his game representatives of pretty prestigious public houses without offering them an appropriate remuneration. In any case my publication is not juridically-oriented and focuses on assessing the moral side of their deed. Therefore I suggest it expedient to unveil the names of the journalists, having taken part in the afore-mentioned press-tours: James Carden, Pepe Escobar, Janus Kostia Putkonen, Irena Pan, Rok Plesnar, Igor Pozgaj, Dragan Kelecevic, Vania Savicevic. Let this roll be a sort of shame board, warning the other reporters. Finally, in case it will be revealed that the participants of those notorious press-tours were financially rewarded by persons interested in the “proper” interpretation of the events in Donbass, it is worth noticing that apart from breaking the rules of professional courtesy, they would inflict serious hamper on their image as well as on that of the public houses they belong to!
Thus, all the worldwide mass media representatives valuing their reputation should immediately draw attention to the ever expanding press-tours to Donbass as well as to the propagandistic activity of the “Great Motherland” altogether. Otherwise, considering party leaders allocate a lot of resources for this purpose, that movement may gain an opportunity to extend its sphere of influence and start stirring up separatism in different regions of the world. Just imagine the scale of the negative impact on the global mass media which they may appear to be exposed to.
Ultimately I would like to warn all the journalists tending to go to Donbass through the Starikov’s program that by crossing the border of Ukraine without special authorization you will break the law of the sovereign State. Therefore respective punitive measures are sure to be applied, up to passing your case to the INTERPOL. That’s why I appeal those having intention to join Starikov’s press-tours to think twice before committing such a silly and ill-considered deed! It would look much more professional from your side to carry out the same trip legally, by agreeing all the terms with representatives of official Ukrainian authorities, just like TRUE journalists usually do it.