Letter
Do funders of Mediazona and BBC determine bias?
The question of the funding of media outlets and the impact of funding on bias and credibility is a basic and critical one that can help us discern media bias and war propaganda. It surprises me that it is not one raised by Joseph Camilleri, who writes, “According to the thorough and regularly updated analysis conducted by Mediazona in collaboration with BBC News Russian Service…”
A recent article in The Grayzone (“BBC’s ‘independent’ Russian partner begged UK govt for funds”) points out that Mediazona was founded in 2014 by members of Pussy Riot and that “leaked documents indicate that between 2020 and 2023, Mediazona was in line for vast, secret grants for anti-Kremlin agitation from the British Foreign Office”.
On Ukrainian vs Russian military casualties, the P&I article presents Mediazona, the BBC, and Ukrainian war correspondent Yuri Butusov’ as credible sources, failing to mention that Butusov is a member of the Ukrainian National Guard.
A genuinely anti-war commentator is former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, who estimates that “Ukraine’s casualties exceed Russia’s by a factor of 10”.
What is the truth? For peace, we must search hard for it whenever the discourse steers us towards accepting perpetual proxy wars.
— Susan Dirgham from Melbourne