MDF Report on Anti-Western Propaganda in 2022

The Media Development Foundation, a local media watchdog, published a new report on anti-Western propaganda in Georgia, according to which the propaganda manipulations spread in the country in 2022 followed the five main threads: “the second front,” “the second Maidan,” “sovereign democracy,” democratic institutions, and Western funding.

The report, which covers the period from January to December 2022 and is based on the analysis of up to 10,000 comments, shows that the largest share of propaganda messages was directed against the collective West and the U.S., followed by the EU and NATO. Other targets included Ukraine, democratic institutions such as NGOs, the ombudsman and the media, and liberal ideas in general. “Russia was the only subject that was presented positively in the given discourse,” the report notes.

The report was prepared by the Media Development Foundation (MDF) with the financial support of the USAID Unity Through Diversity Program, implemented by the UN Association in Georgia (UNAG). Due disclosure: UNAG is a parent organization and publisher of Civil.ge

The Media Development Foundation has been studying anti-Western propaganda in Georgia since 2014. The latest report covers eleven media outlets, including television, print and online media. The research process focused particularly on talk shows, which allows for a more comprehensive analysis of discourse.

Anti-Western Messages

Thematically, the anti-Western messages are divided into five main streams: 1. Foreign Policy and Security (42.2%); 2. Democracy, Sovereignty and Democratic Institutions (21.7%); 3. Russian Intervention in Ukraine (20.5%); 4. Identity and Liberalism (11.9%); and 5. Foreign Aid and Economy (3.6%).

In terms of foreign policy and security-related issues, the main target was the EU, which, as the report explains, was conditioned by the EU integration process and, in particular, the issue of granting Georgia the candidacy.

The report stresses that the most sensitive propaganda message was that the West was trying to “drag Georgia into the war” and “open a second front” of the Ukraine war in the country. This, according to the report, was related to the instrumentalization of fears of war, which gained particular intensity against the background of Russia’s war in Ukraine and became the main tool of political manipulation in the context of the EU candidacy.

And when Georgia was not granted the status in June 2022, the report says, the refusal strengthened the propaganda stream, as if the denial of the status was caused by the fact that the Georgian authorities did not agree to open a second front in the country. In addition, NATO, the U.S., the collective West, and with a small share of messages, even Ukraine blamed, and it was implied, and at times even directly claimed, that they were demanding Georgia’s participation in the war in exchange for the EU candidacy.

In turn, Russia’s war in Ukraine was portrayed as an opportunity to settle relations with Russia. Russia was painted as “the only solution” for the return of Georgia’s occupied territories. Propaganda messages about Russia’s war in Ukraine also included Russia’s “invincibility and military superiority.”

The report also notes a continuation of the trend from previous years in which Russia was still portrayed as a deterrent to Turkey and Georgia’s other neighbors, with allegedly aggressive designs. Turkey, for its part, was shown as a threat to Georgia’s territorial integrity, bent on “restoring the Ottoman Empire.”

The so-called anti-Maidan fears were fueled by a propaganda stream that claimed the U.S. (in most cases), “the West,” or the EU were planning to change the Georgian government through “a revolutionary scenario” compared to Ukraine’s Euromaidan – the 2013 “Revolution of Dignity” – which was painted by the propagandists as an extremist coup.

Messages about the need to defend the “sovereign democracy,” a term coined in Russia, argue that outside powers have no right to interfere in their interpretation of “democracy,” have mostly been directed at the U.S., then the West in general and the EU. In responding to the Western criticism of its democratic practices, the report says both the ruling party and the pro-Kremlin forces equated such criticism with Western interference in Georgia’s sovereign affairs.

Some domestic institutions that served as a check on the government were also considered a threat, often painted as being in cahoots in the West and acting on its behalf i.e. being “foreign agents” – a colloquial holdover from Soviet political lexicon that means “a spy.” These included local NGOs, the public defender Nino Lomjaria, and the media. The report notes that this narrative was advancing the idea that the foreign funding of these entities is intransparent, and the term “rich NGOs” was coined and actively used in propaganda messaging. This line of argumentation subsequently underpinned the drafting of a Russian-style law “on transparency of foreign funding” which was passed in March 2023 in the first reading and only withdrawn after massive public protests.

Sources of Anti-Western Messages

According to MDF, the main source of anti-Western messages in Georgia in 2022 were politicians (45.5%), followed by the media (30.1%), pro-government experts (16.1%), non-governmental organizations (7.7%) and clergy of Georgia’s Orthodox Church (0.6%).

Among the political parties, the largest share of anti-Western messages was voiced, according to the report, by the pro-Kremlin parties “Alt-Info/Conservative Movement” (2302) and “Alliance of Patriots” (1117), followed by the ruling party’s spin-off “People’s Power” and the ruling “Georgian Dream” itself.

Also Read:

• 22/09/2021 – Watchdog: Anti-Western Propaganda Increased in 2020
• 22/07/2020 – MDF Releases Report on Anti-western Propaganda in Georgia

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)