Report
Lithuania Weekly: Kremlin-Aligned Outlets Twist Jobless Aid Talk into Military Draft Claim
Last week, pro-Kremlin media in Lithuania pushed disinformation suggesting the country’s independence is crumbling and NATO membership offers more danger than protection. Misleading headlines fueled outrage over a misunderstood proposal linking unemployment benefits to Riflemen’s Union membership, while scandals surrounding Gintautas Paluckas were largely ignored or downplayed.
Weekly Reports
Lithuania Weekly: Anti-Ukraine Sentiments
During this reporting week, Kremlin-aligned media outlets focused on criticising Ukraine and everything that’s related to this country. Outlets kept on minimising Ukraine’s capacities, proposing an incoming loss in the battlefield, blaming the country’s officials and armed forces for corruption and generally discouraging support for Ukraine, basing it on the fact, that, allegedly, it’s ineffective and other countries have already made the ‘smart and reasonable decision’.
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Latvia Weekly: Corruption and Hate towards LGBTQ
In the examined week similarly as prior weeks the content was centered around domestic issues with main narratives being corruption within the Latvian government, the life quality level and the issue of Russian language use. The topic of Istanbul Convention or Covid-19 which have been prominent in the prior weeks is being less discussed with less content adressing the issues. Moreover, content which does adress the latter topics is receiving significantly less engagement as before. In regard to overall engagement, similarly as prior weeks the comment sections are significantly more critical by calling out the author on not refering to legitimate sources or overall being logically inconsistent. The form of the content that reaches the highest engagement remains to be in video format.
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Estonia Weekly: Mobilization, Censorship and Sports
This week there was a lot of talk about the 2024 Estonian budget and how this new budget will create more poverty and monetary hardships for the Estonian people. There was also a lot of mention of Prime Minister Kaya Kallas, her meeting with Ukrainian president Zelensky, and how many other politicians agree that her resignation would help the political situation in Estonia improve.
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Lithuania Weekly: Lithuanian Banks in the Target
Antanas Kandrotas, better known for his nickname Celofanas (Cellophane), convicted of scams and fraud, earlier this year announced his willingness to participate in the presidential elections. However, his decision came across many challenges, and it was not state institutions that decided to block his way to the elections, but private banks: they refused to open an election account for Cellophane, and without it no one can participate in the elections. During the reporting week, Celofanas alone posted 13 posts on his Facebook page, 10 of them were harshly criticizing the banks and actively broadcasting anti-government sentiments for his followers.
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Latvia Weekly: Scandinavian Banks, Private Planes and Flu Epidemic
Main narratives: Overview: From the findings of the examined week the content mainly surrounds domestic controversies especially concerning corruption. The main topic remains the private airplane flights taken by the ex prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš. Other topics include Scandinavian banks and Covid-19 however they are not widespread amongst all of the channels examined. Contrary to…
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Estonia Weekly: Taxes and the poor
This week there was a lot of talk about the 2024 Estonian budget and how this new budget will create more poverty and monetary hardships for the Estonian people. There was also a lot of mention of Prime Minister Kaya Kallas, her meeting with Ukrainian president Zelensky, and how many other politicians agree that her resignation would help the political situation in Estonia improve.
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Lithuania Weekly: Ukraine’s Prioritisation over Lithuania
Scrutinised pieces during this reporting week were mainly criticising the prioritisation of Ukraine over Lithuanian issues. Hostile outlets also further undermined Lithuania’s ongoing support for Ukraine, claiming that it “leads nowhere” and accused the government of Lithuania for putting the war in Ukraine first and domestic issues second. Also, Kremlin-aligned media harshly criticised local politicians, questioning their competencies and financial transparency (referring to previously analysed MG Baltic case).
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Latvia Weekly: Domestic Violence and Corruption
From the findings of the examined week, there is a noticeable trend of the topic of the Istanbul Convention being decreasingly addressed in comparison to the prior weeks especially weeks leading up to its ratification in the Latvian Parliament. Whilst it is still addressed by the majority of the sources examined it is no longer getting as high of an engagement which could be the direct cause for the decrease in content discussing the topic. Similarly to the prior weeks, the private jet flights of the former prime minister and current foreign minister are still at the centre of discussion. Concerning engagement, there is a noticeable trend of the comment section featuring more critical comments hence that questioning the credibility of the information expressed.
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Estonia Weekly: Economy and Western propaganda
This week there was a lot of talk about the 2024 Estonian budget and how this new budget will create more poverty and monetary hardships for the Estonian people. There was also a lot of mention of Prime Minister Kaya Kallas, her meeting with Ukrainian president Zelensky, and how many other politicians agree that her resignation would help the political situation in Estonia improve.
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