H.A. Hellyer: “The perception that Western media is lopsided in favour of Israel gave Sputnik and RT a boost in the Middle East”

As part of The Propaganda Monitor project, and following our investigation "Egypt: inside Russia's Arabic disinformation factory," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) interviewed geopolitical expert H.A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London and the Center for American Progress, a non-partisan progressive think tank in Washington, DC. He analyses the influence of Russian state media in the Middle East.

RSF: RSF investigated the production of Arabic content by the Cairo bureau of Russian state media Sputnik and RIA Novosti. How are these media outlets perceived in the Middle East?

H.A. Hellyer: Sputnik and RT don't operate in a media universe that is somehow a vacuum otherwise. People look at them alongside other international media that come from the West, as a spectrum. In Egypt, for instance, they would see Egyptian media, then Arab media, like Al-Arabiya[a Saudi international news channel] or Al-Jazeera[a Qatari international news channel], and then international non-Arab media, even if it's in the Arabic language. So they would put BBC, Sputnik, CNNand RT all together, though divided between pro- and anti-West. Sputnik and RT are perceived through that prism: not as Russian media, but as anti-West, non-Arabic media. In that regard, they would be viewed sympathetically or negatively depending on the issue. The most crucial issue that Arab audiences are looking at right now is, of course, Israel's war on Gaza. As Sputnik and RT are very sympathetic to the Palestinians and not as much to the Israelis, a lot of Arabs view these media outlets as being willing to speak about the most crucial issue on the international level for them in a way that matches their perception and their realities.

RSF: International mainstream Western media has been criticised for its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, particularly at the beginning of the conflict. What effect has this criticism had on the perception of Russian state media within its Arab audience?

HAH: The coverage of Israel's war on Gaza by Western media gave a real boost to outlets like RT and Sputnik. Concerning this conflict, they are much more critical of the Israelis than CNNand BBCare, or at least perceived to be. While a considerable amount of CNNand BBCcoverage is quite good, it is often skewed in favour of Israel [examples being The public letterwritten by more than 100 BBC staff and the reportby the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring], which has been widely reported as causing a great deal of controversy inside the channels themselves. The perception that Western media is lopsided in favour of Israel definitely gave Sputnik and RT a boost in the Middle East because, on the contrary, these channels' coverage appears much more sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.

RSF: How can we evaluate the impact of the Kremlin's media machine in the region?

HAH: Its impact can be considered as relatively low level. You might see it on social media where people are sending around clips posted by RT or Sputnik. But, unlike international outlets like CNNor BBC, I don't really see their content being used as primary news sources by mainstream Arab channels or politicians. If there is a report in the New York Timesand an Arab media channel is upset with it or interested in it, it will quote it and say 'The New York Times said ABC.' I don't see that same sort of thing when it comes to RT or Sputnik. I think Arab channels and media are well aware that RT and Sputnik are basically just Russian state mouthpieces. But you do get the sense that in the region - and it's not unique to the Arab region - when they're ticked off with Western media for the way they cover a certain topic, the reaction is 'try out Russian media,' or other countries' media, like Chinese media CGTN [the Chinese state television network]. Nevertheless, so far, CGTN hasn't attracted the same sort of attention Russian state media has, perhaps because there hasn't been the same sort of investment put into it.

RSF: What do they specifically cover or avoid covering for their regional audience?

HAH: Across the board, they would be very cautious about covering topics in a way that does not align with, or contradicts, Russian foreign policy - which is a very common practice with media from authoritarian states. A lot of stories on Sputnik and RT are very cutting-edge, but they're on topics that Moscow's foreign ministry doesn't really care about and doesn't have any interest in, and thus doesn't curtail or direct.

• MIDDLE EAST - NORTH AFRICA
• Disinformation and propaganda
• News
• Press freedom
• Right to news and information