propaganda

French aviation company congratulates 'brother and leader of the Libyan revolution' Gaddafi

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:19:45 +0200

It's not unusual for companies in Libya to publicly well-wish "Brother and leader of the Revolution", Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Except when it's... French military aviation company Dassault Aviation.

"Dassault Aviation sends to 'Brother and leader of the revolution', as well as to the people of Libya, its best wishes on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the glorious September 1 revolution". It's this indulgent splurge that greets both Libyans and foreigners alike when they drive into the popular Souk al-Thulatha commercial zone in Tripoli.

Contacted by FRANCE 24, the French aviation company confirmed that it had sent its compliments to the Libyan leader, but gave no further details about who produced the poster. The company's communication service however, told us that the poster was created in the run-up to the 2009 Libyan Aviation Exhibition (Lavex) in October. It also coincided with a project to repair a number of Libyan-owned Dassault Aviation planes, which have received no maintenance since 1992, when a 12-year embargo was placed on the country following the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

On December 10, 2007, Dassault Aviation signed a protocol of agreement with Libya, which launched the negotiation of 14 fighter planes, 35 helicopters, and other military equipment, for the grand total of 4.5 billion euros.

The People’s Republic (nearly) perfect 60th anniversary ceremony

Team Observers — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:21:47 +0200

As expected, the parade organised to celebrate the People’s Republic of China’s 60th anniversary went extremely smoothly — thanks in part to the massive security lock-down weeks ahead of the show. There was one small hitch, however, as Chinese Web users were quick to see.

Seven thousand men paraded on Chang Avenue up to Tiananmen Square, along with an armada of tanks and missiles, military jets and 200,000 students. Only 400,000 people were authorised to attend the show. Even cats were banned from the parade’s perimeter.

So when a huge commercial for the Japanese brand Toshiba appeared behind the parade and was filmed at length for the millions of Chinese watching the ceremony on TV, patriotic viewers were quick to react.

Chinese Web users print-screened the commercial and promptly denounced the incompetence of state television CCTV online. According to them, Toshiba was the only brand visible during the entire ceremony.

Photo posted by "ken_tcheng". Written on the image: "Toshiba? They should have hidden that! What is CCTV doing?"

Here are just a few examples of reactions posted on the forum MOP.

"Why didn’t anyone check this sort of detail before the ceremony was broadcast live?"

"I demand that the person at CCTV in charge of broadcasting the ceremony resign and that Toshiba pay for the extra advertisement"

"I noticed it too, it's really awful!"

"They obviously didn’t film the brand on purpose. There are so many brands in China, they weren’t going to destroy the billboards just for the ceremony."

The Bollywood clip with an Israeli objective

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:31:03 +0100

It is hoped this clip will promote Israel's military might in India. An unusual way of going about it... the Bollywood-style clip has not gone down well with everybody.

A contribution from one of our Israeli Observers, Roi Ben-Yehuda.

An Israeli government-owned arms company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, produced the Bollywood-esque video in aims of strengthening Israeli-Indo defence ties. The clip, which was recently showcased at the Aero India exhibition in Bangalore, features a man (Israel) who promises to defend and shield a woman (India) asking for protection and security. Dancing on a stage flanked by flower draped missiles, the actors jointly sing: ‘Together, forever, I will hold you in my heart. Together, forever, we will never be apart'.

According to Assy Josephy, the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael, the idea of the video came about as a result of Israel's familiarity with Indian culture. 'In Israel we have Jewish people from India', explains Josephy, 'so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael'.

Josephy further explains that making a locally flavoured defence videos is not unusual for his company. 'In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare.'

The blogosphere, however, has not been so kind to Rafael's culturally-sensitive promotional video. The security-centred Danger Room has claimed that ‘every element of the promotional film is just plain wrong'. Over at the Dew Line, Stephen Trimbles calls it a ‘catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry' And at MensXP.com, India's largest men's lifestyle portal, the film's lyrics are lambasted as representing ‘everything that is wrong with arms and defence equipment marketing campaigns'."

And if Hamas rockets were to reach Tel Aviv?

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:13:28 +0100

After 22 days of war, 1,300 Palestinian and 14 Israeli deaths, Israel and Hamas have agreed, on either side, to a ceasefire. Was so much bloodshed necessary to end the hostilities? For two Sderot students at least, the rockets were becoming insufferable, and it was only a matter of time before Hamas Qassams would be landing in Tel Aviv.

As part of their studies at Sapir University near Sderot, Yatir Keren and Ron Rochman created an artistic project with the aim of illustrating the daily lives of those living under target of Hamas rockets in southern Israel. The narrative behind the project - entitled 'Distance Is Only a Matter of Time': a rocket launched from Gaza reaches Tel Aviv.

Israel justifies deadly UN school attack on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:29:28 +0100

Following huge criticism over their deadly shelling of a UN school yesterday, the Israeli army has posted a video justifying the attack on YouTube, insisting that the army was targeted by militants from the school premises. They also highlight a previously posted video which they say shows aerial view images of Hamas firing from a UN school in 2007.

For Palestinians in the Gaza strip, Tuesday was the most deadly day since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas almost a fortnight ago. In response to what they say was mortar shelling from militants, the Israeli military attacked a UN-run school in the northern town of Jebaliya, killing 42. The incident caused outrage in the international community, but the IMF were quick to defend their actions with a video (see below), which they posted on their YouTube channel just hours after the attack. They also highlighted footage posted beforehand, of aerial views of what they say is Gazan militants firing mortar shells into the air from school grounds in October 2007 (not the same school). But despite the response, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which runs the schools, has said that they are "99.9 percent certain there were no militants or military activity in its school."

The death count in Gaza is now 680 - 215 of which are children - according to Palestinian medical sources. At least 2,950 have been wounded.

Gaza: a war behind closed doors

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:00:32 +0100

Image : The Electronic Intifada

While the Israeli Army keeps the doors to Gaza firmly shut in the faces of enquiring journalists, the pro-Palestinian press has images of corpses on a loop, a Molotov cocktail of information.

The international press is somewhat lacking in images from Gaza. The Israeli Army only issues footage of successfully targeted bombings, and the war zone is off-limits to journalists — even though the IDF promised to let eight reporters across the border. Now that the Internet has been cut off in Gaza, very few amateur images are making it out of the area. So the media rely almost entirely on their correspondents in the field to find out what's going on. On the pro-Palestine side, TV networks settle for broadcasting endless photos of body parts and children's corpses.

In response to this information starvation, the Web is becoming a battleground between Palestine and Israel supporters. As comments get fiercer, hackers become more inventive.

Our Observers from Jerusalem to Gaza City comment from the middle of this information war. You can ask them questions on their profile pages.

The Israeli Army shows off its target skills on YouTube

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:58:32 +0100

Israel's war against Hamas is being drawn out on the internet as well as on the ground. The Israeli Army has just launched a YouTube channel to house videos of its aerial attacks - which happen to be perfectly targeted.

The "IDF Spokesperson's Unit" channel is the Israeli Army's official YouTube page, planned to "help bring our message to the world". Launched on Monday, each video has already received tens of thousands of hits in just two days. A day after its launch, some of the videos posted were removed - due to YouTube's flagging system - nonetheless provoking outrage from supporters of the site. While some bloggers are describing the concept as "a propaganda campaign, pure and simple", others have called it a "a brilliant strategy (...) to counter the typically anti-Israeli sentiment prevalent throughout the international media". And then there are those who feel the PR idea will "fall flat" because you can't see anything on the videos. What is sure is that the channel has provoked an immense reaction from the blogosphere and new media audiences - something that the IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich recently called "another war zone" itself...

The air force strikes what the IDF claims are rockets being transported by Hamas. Posted 29 Dec. 08.

Israeli Navy attack. Posted 29 Dec. 08.

Propaganda posted in helium balloons sparks border closure from N Korea

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:16:28 +0100

South Korean NGOs have been floating propaganda and money in helium balloons across the border for years. No secret to the authorities, so why did Kim Jong-Il's regime announce this morning that it will throttle the border and flush out Southerners?

Each containing 10,000 printed leaflets and a wad of bank notes laminated in plastic, the packages are tied up with string and attached to 10-metre-long balloons filled with helium. Their destination? North Korea, where popping one of the floating donations and distributing its contents is banned.

Since 2003, human rights activists have been using the unusual postal method to contact their divided state's northern counterparts. The contents of their message: world news, freedom literature and information about the North Korean regime.

Until recently the balloons were tolerated by the authorities, but at the start of October, Kim Jong Il's regime starting labelling the deliveries "psychological warfare". After weeks of threats from the Unification Ministry, it was announced on Monday that they would "strictly restrict" border crossings, "selectively expel" South Koreans and suspend an historic cross-border train tour.

Coincidentally, the change of tune comes just after the leaflets started to include information about the state of Kim Jong-Il's health; specifying that their "Dear Leader" has suffered a stroke and is soon to prove himself immortal...

Were the latest images of Kim Jong-il Photoshopped?

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:36:55 +0100

The banner reads: "We give our lives for the revolution of the great Kim Jong-il'"

In order to hush rumours about Kim Jong-il's death, the North Korean authorities released photos of the "dear leader" inspecting his troops earlier this week. But a Chinese blogger says that the photos have been digitally manipulated.

US 08: rich pickings for political communication

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:21:26 +0100

This year's race to the White House has seen the most aggressive and expensive election campaigns in history, with video clips taking shape as the best weapons.

Egged on by each other, it was soon established that the initial frontrunners (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney) would be fighting their causes, and criticising those of their opponents, by summoning up topical, funny, and convincing video clips in record times. Largely distributed online, the clips became an all-encompassing means of persuasion for candidates desperate to get into the White House. If you think John McCain's 320 videos is a lot, it's nothing on Barack Obama's 1820. So it's no wonder that despite over 18 months of bombardment, we're still discovering some gems in the catfight treasure trove. Here's our selection of the best...