On November 14, at the invitation of German Minister of Culture and Mass Media Claudia Roth, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko joined an online meeting of media ministers of the G7 countries to discuss joint actions to counter russian propaganda and disinformation.

The Ukrainian Minister informed the G7 representatives about the situation in Ukraine, in particular about the work of the media during the war. As a result of russian aggression in Ukraine, 43 journalists were killed, 457 crimes against journalists were committed, infrastructure was damaged, and the advertising market ceased to function.

In turn, russian propagandists have repeatedly frightened the world with russia’s use of nuclear weapons, threatened European states with war for supporting Ukraine, carried out gas blackmail, contributed to the emergence of aggressive sentiments of russians against the entire democratic world, etc.

“The speed and scale with which russia spreads fakes and dangerous narratives around the world and the amount of resources it invests in it cannot but frighten. I proposed a plan and areas of cooperation in the format of the “Information Ramstein” initiative. These are sanctions against russian propaganda mouthpieces, criminalization of the spread of disinformation, support for Ukrainian media inside the country and in the world. But the main thing is joint coordinated actions of the entire democratic world against russian information weapons. Ukraine was invited to join the new Democratic newsroom initiative – a mechanism for joint work of the leading news agencies of the G7 countries. I believe that together we will not let this darkness spread around the world,” said Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Many propagandist media are already banned in the G7 countries, but some TV channels still broadcast via European satellites. For example, Eutelsat broadcasts about ten free channels on other satellites in Europe and other parts of the world. In particular, the RT Arabic channel broadcasts not only on the territory of Europe, but also in the Middle East and North Africa, where russian narratives about the war in Ukraine are spread unilaterally.

Oleksandr Tkachenko offered the G7 countries the main steps within the framework of the “Information Ramstein” initiative:

• to implement joint measures to counter disinformation, in particular to promote the cooperation of information agencies;
• to introduce sanctions against russian propagandists who spread propaganda in the world;
• to promote the international broadcasting of Ukrainian channels, in particular the TV channel “FREEDOM”;
• to provide immediate support for the protection and preservation of media operating in Ukraine;
• to expand “cultural sanctions”;
• to ensure systemic cooperation at the government level;
• to develop a digital database;
• to ensure broad institutional cooperation;
• to create a Fund for the support of Ukrainian mass media.