French Ambassador to Bangladesh Marie Masdupuy has said Bangladesh's people and its public opinion are being targeted by 'absolutely massive informational operation' completely distorting the reality when it comes to what France is doing with Ukraine, reports UNB.
"I wanted to alert you to that because you are a very professional and serious media. And it's your duty to not only debunk all these but to pre-bunk," she told a small group of journalists at her residence on Wednesday, describing the 'information manipulation' as a challenge for democracies.
The French envoy said it is not the only country where it is taking place but it just shows that in the eyes of the current Russian regime, Bangladesh is one of their target countries.
Masdupuy said since early May, she noticed mainly on some YouTube channels, online media, and Bangladeshi online media in Bangladesh some videos explaining to the Bangladeshi people that France has troops in Ukraine, mentioning the particular name of some regiments, units or battalions.
"We are not talking about fake news, we are not talking about propaganda, and we are not talking about disinformation or misinformation. We are talking about information manipulation," she said.
She said information manipulation is a real threat and the real challenge that they all face everywhere in the world.
Ambassador Masdupuy said France has been facing information manipulation campaigns over the last years and they are seeing these campaigns intensifying in the last month, originating from Russia aiming at harming France. "There are probably reasons that encourage them to do this, but I will not go into it right now."
Responding to a question, she said information manipulation is definitely one issue, which they raise with the government of Bangladesh.
The envoy said she does not know how these videos went through and managed to be published in these channels in Bangladesh, including the serious ones.
"That's none of my business. My duty is to alert a sample of professional media here in Bangladesh through you to alert you," she said.
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