Anne-Laure Bonnel made a documentary about the Donbas War in 2015. She says it was censored and never actually aired on French television. Youtube deleted the original upload in early March of 2022. A new copy of her documentary was uploaded with multi-lingual subtitles on March 7th, 2022. It is currently shadowbanned by Youtube. Even if you click past the warnings, it will not play for all users.
Bonnel has also interviewed people in the Donbas region of Ukraine since the Russian invasion started. Le Figaro, one of the largest newspapers in France, published an article she wrote titled “Donbas, where it all began.” The article was deleted from their website shortly after. A local photo-journalist working for Le Figaro was detained, interrogated, and accused of being a Russian spy. Le Figaro deleted the article to protect their employee from retribution.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky started banning opposition media before Russia even invaded. He revoked licenses for three tv stations, ZIK, NewsOne, and 112 Ukraine. The three media outlets were owned by Ukrainian Parliament Member Taras Kozak, who was one of Zelensky’s leading political enemies. The US State Department even praised Zelensky’s effort to censor the media in Ukraine, calling the outlets “disinformation” and part of an “infowar.”
After Russia invaded, Zelensky nationalized all remaining independent media. All coverage of the war inside of Ukraine comes from what Zelensky calls “United News.”
Since Russia invaded, Zelensky has also banned eleven political parties and imprisoned politicians and government officials. Denis Kireev, a member of Zelensky’s original negotiation team, was even summarily executed by the authorities in Kiev. Even more incredible is that this information has barely been reported by Western media, who continue to describe Ukraine as a “Western Democracy.”
In the video below, click the CC button for English subtitles.
Anne-Laure Bonnel talking about the French media.
As you can see in this picture, there are swarms of media operating in Ukraine. How many are being objective in their coverage and how many simply repeat claims from Zelensky’s “United News” with no objectivity?
