From Paul Goble, for Window on Eurasia
Given the impact of Russia's information wars against countries like Estonia and Belarus, says Raul Rebane, it is unfortunate that there is not a single university in Europe with a doctoral-level program in this field. Establishing such programs should be a priority, says the Estonian information expert.
Rebane, who worked for 20 years in Estonian television, from the end of the Soviet period until his country had stabilized its independence, offers some important insights into how Estonians have resisted Russia's moves in this area and how others can benefit from their experience.
Russia regularly engages in disinformation attacks on Estonia, but the country does not respond by attacking Russia. Instead, its main “card” consists of its “proud citizen.” If a citizen is proud of his country, his culture, etc., “then it doesn’t matter what Moscow television says. That individual will not believe it and Moscow’s attack will fail.”
Information warfare at its core, Rebane says, “is the deliberate sending of messages to an adversary that he should throw down his shield. What does this shield consist of? The shared values of the nation and the state.” In Estonia, that defense mechanism works “quite well.”
It is not just Estonians who are skeptical of what they are being told, and it is not just that Estonian media provide accurate news that contradicts Russian claims, he continues. The country's media also offer other ways to defeat Russian disinformation, such as the case of Estonian television, which offers entertainment programs that serve as "one of the strongest defensive and offensive tools of information warfare."
“Little Estonia makes somewhere around 20 TV series a year in the national language,” says Rebane. This is extremely expensive “but very important.” It reinforces the way people see themselves and their nation and becomes a source of pride and dignity that keeps them from falling victim to the various lures of information warfare.
In information wars, social media can help destroy authoritarian regimes. What is “always” needed is critical thinking, access to some independent media, and attention from others. All of these have played a key role in Estonia’s success.
“Estonia was the only republic where Finnish television could be watched in the northern part of the country” during the Soviet occupation. “We lived between three information spaces: our Estonian television, Moscow Soviet TV and democratic Finnish television.” The influence of the latter was particularly significant.
“Finnish television influenced the Estonian mentality, since the language of the two peoples is almost completely similar,” says Rebane; “And for this reason we got an advantage compared to all the other countries” that emerged from the collapse of the USSR. “We were able to think democratically” from the beginning, something that most others were not able to do.
Belarus needs media from abroad to guide its media under the direction of Minsk and Moscow and to help promote critical and democratic thinking among its population. If such democratic media for Belarusians emerges abroad, many journalists who now work for the state will switch sides, just as those in the Baltic states did in the late 1980s.
But it is also very important for people abroad to focus on Belarus. The Baltic diaspora did it for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during the occupation. The Belarusian diaspora and sympathizers of the country should do the same now.
As the Finnish novelist Sofi Oksanen said many years ago, “if people don’t know about your existence, they won’t notice that you’re disappearing.” Fortunately, today, the world is looking at Belarus, and they no longer see the dictator there as a good old “grandfather” to his people.