Crucified Boy

"Crucified Boy" (Russian: Распятый мальчик, Raspyaty malchik) was a news report that was officially titled "A refugee from Sloviansk recalls how a little son and a wife of a militiaman were executed in front of her" and was shown on the Russian state-owned Channel One Russia during the War in Donbass, on July 12, 2014. It contained unconfirmed allegations of a public crucifixion of a three-year-old boy performed by Ukrainian soldiers at the Lenin Square in Sloviansk, told by an alleged resident of Sloviansk, Halyna Pyshnyak (Ukrainian: Галина Пишняк, Russian: Галина Пышняк), a native of Zakarpattya. The story has become a staple example of Russian fake news.

See also: Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis

History

Investigative journalists from Russian outlets Novaya Gazeta and Dozhd who visited Sloviansk and interviewed local residents, did not find any supporting evidence to back up the allegations, nor did they find any audio or video footage of the incident, unusual for the time, since actions of the Ukrainian army in the city were well documented at the time.[1] A BBC News report also said that Sloviansk did not have a Lenin Square, where, supposedly locals were assembled to watch the incident. An investigation of Pyshnyak also reported that her husband was a former Berkut unit member who had joined the separatist unit led by Igor Strelkov.[2]

The report episode was later widely used as an example of disinformation or fake news, that "became the standard" for modern mass media, especially Russian official ones.[3] In Russian mass culture the episode - this "good piece of propaganda"[4] - became a "synonymous for journalist fakes".[5][6] The spread of the news about "crucified boy" was later used for statistical analysis of the expansion of fake information in modern social networks and search engines.[7][8]

The former editor of Russian news portal "Lenta.ru" Galina Timchenko said that it was a gross breach of professional ethics by the Russian leading television channels.[9] The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called the Russian Channel One "nuts" for airing the report.[9] Another Russian opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov, stated that it was an attempt to rally naïve people behind the idea a war against Ukraine.[9] Russia Today, which was widely reporting the story on their TV channel and online with headline "Kiev army now literally crucify babies in towns, forces mothers to watch", later deleted the story from their website and denied any previous involvement, however most of copies of their coverage on social media remained in place.[10][11]

The story was officially retracted by Channel One, which was first to air it, on 21 December 2014, citing merely relaying an alleged eyewitness report.[12]

See also

References
  1. "Факты ICTV | Историю о "распятом мальчике" для Первого канала придумала жена боевика ДНР". ФАКТИ. 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  2. "Блогеры не верят в историю о казни ребенка в Славянске". BBC News Русская служба (in Russian). 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  3. "The post-truth world: Yes, I'd lie to you". The Economist. 2016-09-10.
  4. Kramer, Andrew E. (2017-02-26). "To Battle Fake News, Ukrainian Show Features Nothing but Lies". The New York Times.
  5. Issers, Oksana S. (2015). "From the serious - to the ridiculous: the game potential of the Russian word of the year" (PDF). Political Linguistics (4): 25–31. ISSN 1999-2629.
  6. Holm, Kerstin (2017-02-13). "Russische Berichterstattung: Europa, hungere!". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  7. Khaldarova, I.; Pantti, M. (2016-10-02). "Fake News: The narrative battle over the Ukrainian conflict" (PDF). Journalism Practice. 10 (7): 891–901. doi:10.1080/17512786.2016.1163237. hdl:10138/233374. ISSN 1751-2786. S2CID 147693486.
  8. Hryshchuk, R.; Molodetska, K. (2016). "Synergetic Control of Social Networking Services Actors' Interactions". In Szewczyk, R. (ed.). Recent Advances in Systems, Control and Information Technology. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 543. Springer. ISBN 9783319489230.
  9. Russian TV show - Ukraine child crucifixion. News24. 14 July 2014
  10. "Russia's top 100 lies about Ukraine". Russia Lies. 2015-07-26. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  11. "Paul Niland: Participants in propaganda | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice". KyivPost. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  12. "Журналисты Первого отвечают на обвинения во лжи в связи с сюжетом про убийство ребенка в Славянске". 1tv. Retrieved 2020-11-03.

Literature
Books
  • Skillen D. The normalisation of lying - Living with the lies // Freedom of Speech in Russia: Politics and Media from Gorbachev to Putin. — Routledge, 2016. — 372 p. — (BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies). — ISBN 9781317659884.
  • Van Herpen M. H. The «Hybrid War» in Ukraine: From Misinformation to Disinformation // Putin's Propaganda Machine: Soft Power and Russian Foreign Policy. — Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. — 336 p. — ISBN 9781442253629.
  • Snyder T. Learn from peers in other countries // On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. — Random House, 2017. — 128 p. — ISBN 9781473549296.
  • Nalbandov R. Fear and Loathing in Russian Political Culture // Not by Bread Alone: Russian Foreign Policy Under Putin. — University of Nebraska Press, 2016. — 648 p. — ISBN 9781612348001.
  • Monshipouri M. Social media Kyivs Euromaidan and demands // Information Politics, Protests, and Human Rights in the Digital Age. — Cambridge University Press, 2016. — 326 p. — ISBN 9781107140769.
  • Conradi P. «You do it too» // Who Lost Russia?: How the World Entered a New Cold War. — Oneworld Publications, 2017. — 400 p. — ISBN 9781786070425.
  • Ostrovsky A. Epilogue: Aerial Combat // The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War. — Atlantic Books Ltd, 2015. — 400 p. — ISBN 9781782397410.
  • David Satter. A System Under Threat // The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin. — Yale University Press, 2016. — 224 p. — ISBN 9780300221145.
Articles
  • Kinstler L. How to Survive a Russian Hack // The Atlantic. — 2017. — 2 February.
  • Higgins A. Fake News, Fake Ukrainians: How a Group of Russians Tilted a Dutch Vote // The New York Times. — 2017. — 16 February.
  • Danilova M. Truth and the Russian media: Unhinged claims about the Malaysia jet are part of a broader propaganda campaign // Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). — 2014. — 22 July.
  • Eduard Palchys: I Can Switch Over To Belarusian Language Without Any Problems // Charter97. — 2017. — 6 February. — ISSN 2543-4969.
  • Maheshwari V. Ukraine’s fight against fake news goes global: Countering Kremlin disinformation is one area where Kiev has the upper hand // Politico. — 2017. — 12 March.
  • VanderMey A. W. Ukraine’s fight against fake news goes global: Countering Kremlin disinformation is one area where Kiev has the upper hand // The Wilson Quarterly. — 2016. — Fall.
  • Putz C. Uzbek Nanny Beheads Child in Moscow // The Diplomat. — 2016. — 3 March.
  • Frye B. Conflict & Diplomacy: Detoxing Russia // Transitions Online (TOL). — 2015. — 3 March. — P. 1–3.
  • Nygren G., Glowacki M., Hök J., Kiria I., Orlova D. Journalism in the Crossfire: Media coverage of the war in Ukraine in 2014 // Journalism Studies. — 2016. — 22 November. — P. 1–20. — ISSN 1461-670X. — DOI:10.1080/1461670X.2016.1251332.
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