For years, Russia’s main tactic to compete with Western news media has been to create alternative outlets, like its television channel RT (previously Russia Today) and the Sputnik multimedia news agency. Now, however, Moscow is stepping up its efforts in two areas where Western media and foundations have long enjoyed an advantage: journalism training and fact-checking.

The new focus is notable. Western organizations have trained thousands of journalists in recent decades, particularly in formerly Soviet states and the countries of the Global South. These reporters have gone on to hold government officials to account and fight for democracy and free speech. Meanwhile, Western donors have backed a sprawling network of fact-checking groups around the world that have helped expose disinformation and explode conspiracy narratives.

Now, Russia—with its eye particularly trained on the Global South—seems intent on advancing its own mirror image of Western journalism training, one in which Russian media practices are portrayed as the gold standard. Simultaneously, Moscow is challenging the world’s largest fact-checking coalitions by creating a new fact-checking network under a similar-sounding name, aiming to unite fact-checkers “who share our views and values.”

RT Academy, launched in February, initially focused on training journalists in South and Southeast Asia. Nearly 300 students completed an initial course, with some winning internships at RT’s regional bureaus, according to a press release. A course for African journalists was scheduled to begin in October. A video promo for the Africa course portrays Western media as fixated on the “same narrative” of climate change, sanctions against Russia, and LGBT issues, as compared to RT’s “alternative perspective” concentrating on day-to-day African news and Russia’s role in the region.

Even before the official start of the Africa program, RT trainers conducted a seminar in Mali, where Russian influence has largely replaced France’s. Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian foreign aid agency that is assisting the academy, said the September training “used fresh examples to show how famous news agencies like CNN, the BBC, and Deutsche Welle use fake news and spread this information worldwide, deceiving millions of people and giving them a false understanding of events in other countries.”

Russia has long been aware of the power of fact-checkers. RT once ran its own “Fake Check” project. Today, the Russian “War on Fakes” Telegram channel boasts nearly 500,000 subscribers. Over the past year, social posts believed to originate in Russia have been peppering fact-checking organizations with requests to verify a slew of false stories in an apparent attempt to overload and distract their limited staff.

Last month, Russia took more direct aim at the established fact-checking world through the creation of the Global Fact-Checking Network. The name promises confusion with the International Fact-Checking Network, headquartered at the Poynter Institute in Florida, and the Paris-based European Fact-Checking Standards Network.

The sponsors of the embryonic Russian organization are the state news agency TASS and ANO Dialog, a Russian communications conglomerate that has been sanctioned in Europe and the United States. The sponsors’ announcement did not indicate who might join the network. However, it was issued at a “Dialogue on Fakes” forum in Moscow, which organizers said involved participants from sixty-five countries.

“The Russian government is a significant vector of disinformation,” said Angie Holan, director of the U.S.-based IFCN. “I don’t expect this group to work with people who are free to fact-check across the political spectrum. If you can’t fact-check everyone, you’re not an independent fact-checker.”

Still, the Moscow-based network will give its members—it will enroll individuals as well as organizations—the imprimatur of something that sounds like an established fact-checking body.

Whether Russia’s latest journalistic tactics are successes or not, they follow decades of effort by Moscow to ingratiate itself with journalists, especially in the Global South. Soviet officials promoted news exchange agreements between TASS and local news agencies and brought thousands of journalists to Russia for training. Eight years before the start of the RT Academy, Sputnik began its SputnikPro training program, which it says has reached more than 10,000 journalists from eighty countries.

Sputnik denies that its training has any “political or ideological overtones” but says its work “has helped balance the situation” in post-Soviet countries where Westerners have done much journalistic training.

Russian journalism enjoys some credibility in the Global South because of its voluminous content from countries in the region. Most Western news outlets have minimal staff in Africa, for instance. This shortage is made even worse by constant financial cutbacks. Their reporters concentrate on stories that will interest readers beyond Africa.

By contrast, RT and Sputnik offer local stories daily from around Africa. Many have a pro-Russian message, but on a continent where people often know little about neighboring countries, the Russian outlets are a steady source of content. The resources Russia devotes to African coverage are also designed to imply Russian interest in and respect for African nations. 

How should the West respond to the challenge?

First, Western organizations should mobilize independent journalists in the Global South into new networks to create high-volume websites and social network feeds with reliable daily reporting.

Second, the big international news agencies should offer their content at minimal cost to media in countries where the news services of authoritarian nations are the main sources of world news. In many countries, the big agencies will never find customers who can pay their commercial rates. They should still be committed enough to press freedom to find some way to serve struggling independent media.

Finally, Western governments should leverage the strength and brands of their existing international broadcasting services, like the Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and France Médias Monde, to create innovative products that can win new popularity in regions that are desperate for high-quality information.

Journalism represents a critically important theater of the global war between democracy and authoritarianism. Western nations and media organizations need to recognize that fact and strengthen independent media accordingly.

Thomas Kent is the senior fellow in strategic communications at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. A former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a senior editor at The Associated Press, he consults for governments, NGOs, and news media on disinformation and journalistic ethics issues.

Image: fifg / Shutterstock.com.