The Cold War begins again, so the good old propaganda and information radio adjusts its services in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation.
The global media giants have changed their programming and their teams to follow the conflict in the invaded Ukraine, but also to broadcast information to the aggressor country. Censorship extends to the country of Vladimir Putin as never since the fall of the Soviet Empire thirty years ago. Even Facebook and Instagram are now banned in the country.
The impression of returning to the XXe century divided into antagonistic socio-political blocks was amplified with the resumption by the BBC of the broadcast on short waves of four hours a day of news programs to the former USSR. The decision was taken a few days after the censorship of the websites of the famous BBC World Service, the most listened to and the most respected in the world.
The return of short waves
Short waves designate a spectrum of frequencies whose range extends over several thousand kilometers with an immense capacity of capture, including in underground shelters. The low cost of reception devices, which also operate with very little energy, have made them one of the privileged tools for information and socio-cultural influence all over the planet.
Moreover, listening to short waves remains very difficult to detect, which makes this medium even more attractive in areas affected by censorship and surveillance. It was true in World War II, it was true in the Cold War, and it still is now.
“The BBC and The Voice of America [Voice of America] – and even Radio Canada International [RCI] at a certain time – were mobilized in a strategy to promote national interests, with an editorial line in accordance with the political and cultural orientations of Western societies, explains Aimé-Jules Bizimana, professor in the social sciences department of
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The duty (Montréal)Henri Bourassa publishes in 1910 the first issue of the To have to, by promising to make it a newspaper “of opinion” and “of exchange of ideas” to revive the nationalist fiber of French Canadians. Today, Quebec’s last independent daily enjoys a solid reputation, even if its circulation is limited. Rather sovereignist.
The duty pays dearly for its desire not to be part of any press conglomerate: the threat of bankruptcy is recurrent, its editorial staff is limited and it only reaches 3% of the entire readership. This situation did not prevent the Society of News Design from giving, in 1994, the To have to the title of “the most beautiful daily newspaper in the world”.
Like the paper edition, the site has allure. Navigating from one section to another is easy and, unusually, advertising is discreet.
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