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Numonjonov Sh. independent applicant
THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE ORGANIZATION OF «NON-VIOLENT PROTESTS»
Annotation: In this article, the role and place of the mass media and social networks in the preparation and holding "non-violent protests" on the example of different countries.
Key words: Mass media, social networks, "non-violent protests", "media freedom".
In recent years, the world's most initiated so-called "non-violent protests" against the current government. The mass media and social networks play a special role in the preparation and conduct of "non-violent protests".
In particular, in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan at the beginning of the "color revolutions" there was the so-called "freedom of the media", established according to the requirements of Western countries as part of the programs for the democratization of these states.
In Georgia, the Rustavi-2 TV channel became a key information resource in the fight against the Shevardnadze regime 8, thanks to which political opponents of the president who appeared on its air received recognition from the Georgian society.
Of particular importance was the fact that on the eve of the elections, with the support of the Soros Open Society Georgia Foundation and Rustavi-2, opinion polls were regularly conducted and published, which showed a deterioration in the image of the current government. After the parliamentary elections on November 2, 2003, the Rustavi-2 TV channel published the data of the so-called. "independent" exit polls, which were strikingly different from official reports and gave a confident lead to the leading opposition bloc "Saakashvili - National Movement" 9.
In addition, during the active phase of the Rose Revolution, Rustavi-2 broadcast around the clock opposition rallies and marches, the preparation and movement of columns of buses and cars led by M. Saakashvili from the province to Tbilisi, commercials of the youth anti-government movement " Kmara " were shown on prime-time air, the documentary film "The overthrow of the dictator" was repeatedly shown (a film about the fall of the regime of S. Milosevic during the "bulldozer revolution" in Serbia in 2000. Actively used International Center for Nonviolent Conflict as a motivational and educational
8 Rustavi 2 was established in 1994 and since 2001 has been in a state of confrontation with the official authorities. It was very popular in the country (although the broadcast did not cover the entire country).
9 Chulanov Yu.G. Political science: textbook / Yu. G. Chulanov. - 3rd ed. , Rev. and additional - St. Petersburg: Business press, 2015. - 446 p.
tool10), after each news broadcast, he called on TV viewers to join the protesters and in every possible way contributed to the mobilization of supporters throughout Georgia.
It should be noted that it was through the media that the Georgian opposition was able to achieve an emotional rejection by society of the November 2003 elections and their results, which became the immediate reason for the start of the Rose Revolution.
The US Institute of Peace Special Report "On the Georgian Rose Revolution" cites that "Three actors played a decisive role in the opposition's victory: the Kmara movement, political parties, especially Saakashvili's National Movement, and the Rustavi 2 TV channel."
During the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in 2004, the foreign-funded media also played a large role in mobilizing the protest electorate.
With the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Independent Media Center was established in Ukraine, which became the distributor of American grants among independent journalists. In addition, the Media Development Fund was opened at the US Embassy in Kyiv, which also financed Ukrainian media projects, emphasizing the need to respect freedom of speech and fight corruption.
At the same time, by the beginning of the active phase of the social and political crisis in Ukraine in 2004, the media remained under the control of the current government. However, the initiators of the "non-violent protests" actively used the audience of the "Fifth Channel", which since 2003 belonged to the supporter of the "orange revolution" P. Poroshenko.
The channel gained the greatest popularity (third place in the ranking, leaving only Inter and 1 + 1 ahead) during the 2004 presidential election. It was the only TV channel that provided airtime to the opposition. At the same time, the channel broadcast around the clock from Independence Square (the main forces of the initiators of "non-violent protests" were located there), placing special emphasis on the peaceful and even festive, theatrical nature of the protests (for example, showing footage of teenage girls giving flowers to employees of the Berkut special forces unit), presenting them as a kind of show and thereby attracting more and more people to the center of Kyiv to rallies in support of the opposition. The channel's audience consisted of eight million
people, and broadcasting covered no more than a third of the territory of Ukraine
11
10 The International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) is a private foundation established in 2002. The activities of the foundation are focused on providing educational resources to the initiators of non-violent protests, by providing various teaching aids, books, organizing various seminars and round tables and showing motivational and educational video films, as well as providing grant funding for the development of educational materials for activists, scientists, members NGOs and the political community, as well as journalists. The ICSC website has more than a thousand resources on organizing and conducting non-violent protests, in particular, three manuals and one film in Uzbek.
11 Tertychny A.A. Mass information in the world of politics // Vestnik Mosk . university Ser. 12. Political Science 2004. - No. 3 - P.14-18.
It should be noted that the Fifth Channel played a huge role in mobilizing the population against the falsification of the election results by the current government.
At the same time, the initiators of "non-violent protests" on the platform of the Internet newspaper "Ukrainska Pravda" 12actively acted to mobilize the public on a pro-Western platform, published data from exit polls and a parallel vote count that testified to the victory of opposition candidate Yushchenko, exposing election fraud by the incumbent governments, provided up-to-date information on opposition protest rallies, provided detailed logistical information for those who wished to join them, incl. reporting on gathering points of "revolutionaries", etc.
Moreover, in 2002, with financial support from abroad, a network project called Telekritika was also implemented, during which Ukrainian journalists created the first Internet television in Ukraine, which actively participated in the presidential election campaign. The main beneficiary of Telekritika was the Ukrainian branch of INGO Internews.
Under the influence of this Internet platform, about forty journalists working on five different state channels organized a riot at the end of October 2004 and rallied with the "orange" ones, refusing to broadcast information on the "temniks" (pre-prepared information messages) of the administration of President L. Kuchma.
In addition to Ukrayinska Pravda and Telekritika, a number of other Internet resources operated in the interests of the opposition, in particular Maidan.org, the websites of Pora youth organizations, etc.
The head of the political party "Information Ukraine", noted that "the change of power in the country became possible only thanks to the active work of the opposition on the Internet."
In the " Tulip Revolution" of 2005 in Kyrgyzstan, the media funded by the so-called "Kyrgyzstan" played a huge role. supporters of democracy and freedom of speech 13. In particular, in November 2003, on the initiative and with the support of the NGO Freedom House, the first independent printing house began its activities in Bishkek, and M. Stone, an American journalist and employee of Freedom House, became its director. Since then, the printing house has become the main competitor of the state printing house " Uchgun ", which was a monopolist in this area. Actually, the printing house " Freedom House" printed the work of J. Sharp "From Dictatorship to Democracy" in the form of a newspaper-brochure.
12The Internet newspaper "Ukrainian Truth" carried out its activities at the expense of the resources of the US National Endowment for Democracy. The newspaper is currently owned by Dragon Capital to Czech financier Tomas Fiala. In 2004, the daily audience of Ukrayinska Pravda reached one million people.
13 Akmatalieva A. Color revolutions and parliamentary democracy in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan // Central Asia and the Caucasus. - 2013. - T. 16. - Issue . 2. - S. 69-84.
In addition, this printing house printed the main newspaper of the opposition, My Capital - Novosti (MSN). Initially, the publication was in opposition to President A. Akaev, becoming one of the most important actors in the Tulip Revolution 14. The newspaper managed to electrify the country's public opinion to the state of "revolutionary" exaltation, which led to the overthrow of the legitimate regime.
Since then, regular publications with frank calls for a change of power have been reinforced by materials about the abuses and corruption of President Akayev's family. MSN became a real mouthpiece for the opposition: it categorically interpreted the election results as unfair and rigged; encouraged people, especially young people, to take to the streets to protest; informed the protesters about where and when these actions were to take place.
In addition to the newspaper My Capital - Novosti, Kyrgyz TV channels aired talk shows Our Time and Without Retouching, which turned into an open platform for critics of the regime, the programs of which were rebroadcast through regional television studios in the south of the country, where they began unrest that led to the overthrow of Akayev.
In general, during the Tulip Revolution, the opposition media worked according to the scheme already worked out in Georgia and Ukraine to discredit the current government and call for non-recognition of the results of the elections, which was used during the parliamentary elections in 2020.
Starting from the events of the "Arab Spring" - the next wave of nonviolent coups d'etat, Internet technologies began to play a significant role, in particular, the initiators of "non-violent protests" began to actively use social networks (including chats, forums, blogs, wikis). projects, etc.).
Three months before the start of the Arab Spring, the giant of the American IT industry, Google, organized the Freedom 2010 online conference, during which the prospects for using the Internet to spread democratic values around the world were discussed. In this event, a separate section "Network of bloggers of the Middle East and North Africa" actively worked 15.
During the Arab Spring, the opposition used Internet technologies, first of all, as a tool for mobilizing, consolidating and coordinating protesters.
In particular, on Facebook, photos of victims of police violence were posted; videos were shown showing the courage and resilience of the protesters; exhaustive data on the victims among the rebels were provided with demands to punish the perpetrators; lists of complaints against the authorities were posted, along with poetic works, songs, pictures and other "revolutionary" material.
14Knyazev A., Masaulov S. Kyrgyzstan: the most extensive network of NGOs, military bases and decay Statehood // Killing Democracy: CIA and Pentagon Operations in the Post-Soviet period. - M .: ANO "Institute for Foreign Policy Research and Initiatives"; Kuchkovo field, 2014. - S. 297-311.
15Yusupova- Farzalieva D.M. Information and communication technologies in the structure of "color revolutions" // Postgraduate Yearbook. Actual problems of political science and socio-economic disciplines: a collection of scientific articles. - Release V. - Rostov-on-Don: Center for systemic regional studies and forecasting IPPK SFU and ISPI RAN, 2012. - S. 11-19. (0.6 P.L.).
In addition, this social network published detailed instructions and advice to demonstrators on how to protect themselves from tear gas, water cannons and electric batons used by the police to disperse demonstrations, etc. (Subsequently,
similar instructions, literally copied from Arabic, appeared during the Kiev " Euromaidan ").
The advantages of the Twitter service were, first of all, in its immediacy and the possibility of super-fast dissemination of information; any filmed event of the "jasmine" and "date" "revolutions" could be made available to millions in a matter of seconds, both in Tunisia and Egypt, and abroad.
It should be noted that after the victory of the "jasmine" and "date" "revolutions", the head of the US State Department H. Clinton declared that "the Internet has become a public space of the XXI century", emphasizing that demonstrations in the Islamic world, "supported by Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, reflected the power of connectivity technologies as accelerators of political, social and economic change."
Based on the analysis of the role of the media and social networks in the organization of "non-violent protests", the following picture is formed:
- social networks, blogs and video hosting, as well as externally supported media play an important role in organizing "non-violent protests" and "color revolutions";
- the lack of monitoring of the activities of the media and social networks over time can form the access of the initiators of protest actions to large information and human resources for organizing "color revolutions".
Referens:
1. The International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) is a private foundation established in 2002.
2. Yusupova- Farzalieva D.M. Information and communication technologies in the structure of "color revolutions" // Postgraduate Yearbook. Actual problems of political science and socio-economic disciplines: a collection of scientific articles. - Release V. - Rostov-on-Don: Center for systemic regional studies and forecasting IPPK SFU and ISPI RAN, 2012. - S. 11-19. (0.6 P.L.).
3. Tertychny A.A. Mass information in the world of politics // Vestnik Mosk. university Ser. 12. Political Science 2004. - No. 3 - P.14-18.
4. !The Internet newspaper "Ukrainian Truth" carried out its activities at the expense of the resources of the US National Endowment for Democracy. The newspaper is currently owned by Dragon Capital to Czech financier Tomas Fiala. In 2004, the daily audience of Ukrayinska Pravda reached one million people.
5. Akmatalieva A. Color revolutions and parliamentary democracy in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan // Central Asia and the Caucasus. - 2013. - T. 16. - Issue. 2. - S. 69-84.
6. Knyazev A., Masaulov S. Kyrgyzstan: the most extensive network of NGOs, military bases and decay Statehood // Killing Democracy: CIA and Pentagon
Operations in the Post-Soviet period. - M.: ANO "Institute for Foreign Policy Research and Initiatives"; Kuchkovo field, 2014. - S. 297-311.
