Features of Coverage of the War in Ukraine On the Example of the Website of the Official Iranian Mass Media «Irna»

Abstract

Introduction. After the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine all countries of the world gradually got involved into the war which is perceived and viewed differently. Iran suddenly became one of the biggest challenges for the international community since it is a supplier of mass destruction weapons which almost caused the energy collapse of Ukraine in November-December 2022. Relevance of the study. Despite the numerous statements of the leading mass media, Iran is still positioning its pacifism and non-involvement in the war in Ukraine. The USA, GB, Germany, France, Turkey, Israel get appropriately involve in the information conflict as one side and the other side is India, China, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries of the East. Methodology. To find out what the matters, we decided to investigate the deployment of events and the development of confrontations on the pages of the most official Iranian mass media – the national news agency "Irna" with the help of content analysis, analogy, modelling and synthesis. Results. As a result of the conducted research it became clear that during15 months of the war (having hesitated a little at its beginning) IRNA carefully "documented" the course of events, but it also revealed certain strategies for hiding uncomfortable information and activation of so-called jeansa (hiding advertisement). The most common ones include periodic repetition (almost instilling) of phrases about support for Ukraine and its territorial integrity; permanent introduction of Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria, Yemen in the context as it is also not peaceful in these countries, Israel, the USA and Turkey appear as a counterweight to the Ukrainian-Russian twists and turns; attempts to shift attention from the actual to the extraneous are also not neglected; common input of information on policies of Russia and Putin "under the sauce" of different protocol interviews, vlogs and "international expert evaluations"; very often the agency refers to dubious sources like social networks. However, even the strategic use of tricks does not make individual items of IRNA news at least seemingly credible. The thought involuntarily arises that public non-compliance with international standards has deep historical roots and is connected with sacred values. Conclusions. Having carried out a superficial analysis of the history and religions of ancient Persia, we came to a logical conclusion: from the most ancient times to the present, the production of culture is subject to the law of sacred deception, known among Shia Muslims as taqiya and kitman. Thus, the official sources of the Islam Republic have the full right to lie. Yet, of course, all this requires additional research.