Press Release
The Media War - The Truth is the Victim!
(Translated)

With the start of the Russian war on Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union took the initiative in March of the same year to ban many Russian or pro-Russian media outlets in Europe. The European Union justified these measures by saying that Russia uses media outlets to spread its propaganda and media misinformation. In March 2024, the Union decided to suspend the activities of four additional media outlets, accusing them of spreading propaganda and supporting the war against Ukraine. The Russian response came by blocking and banning 81 European media outlets.

While Russia justified the ban as “reciprocity,” the European Union condemned it, as Joseph Borrell said: “The banned European media work according to journalistic principles and standards. They give factual information, also to Russian audiences, including on Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”

There is no disagreement that the ban here aims at controlling the narrative, so that each party becomes the sole presenter of the image that suits it, and the provider of the necessary arguments and justifications to gain sympathy and to mobilize public opinion.

The European Union, and the West in general, still considers itself the authority to set standards and criteria that it works to force the world to follow, and considers its democracy and the principles of freedoms that it guarantees to be the absolute truth. Thus, it makes it easier for itself to impose laws that suit it that are compatible with its aspirations and orientations that are controlled by interest, greed, and exploitation.  The West often resorts to lies and deception to achieve its goals, considering that these methods are legitimate as long as they achieve the goal according to the established rule “the end justifies the means,” and since it is the one who sets the goals and objectives for itself, then it can justify the means and codify them in order to achieve its interests. There are countless examples of this, until this ideology became their religion and their way.

While the West brags about its guarantee of freedoms, including freedom of expression, opinion, personal, media, and religious freedom, we witness how it manipulates with its means, that it codifies and legitimizes, to stand up to anyone who opposes the opinion that it claims is an absolute truth. To prove its opinion, it sometimes resorts to falsifying history or misleading the media at other times. Therefore, it became interested in restricting the media in order to limit intellectual confrontation or to obscure the facts that reveal its falsity, corruption of its ideas, poor procedures, or to cover up the crimes it commits.

This is the situation in the West, whether in a state of war or in a state of peace, because the ideology based on shifting interests will inevitably be shifting and fluctuating, driven by interests and changed by circumstances, and those who decide all of this are limited, imperfect human beings. What was an interest yesterday may become harmful tomorrow, and who was a friend yesterday, with the stroke of a pen, becomes an enemy, and the idea it defended yesterday, it fights today and bans tomorrow, and thus opinions and images fluctuate and principles become scattered in the winds of legitimate and illegitimate personal interests, goals, and objectives.

For example, the West prohibits even researching the issue of the Holocaust and considers denying it a crime whose perpetrator deserves to be imprisoned for years. Likewise, criticizing the Jewish entity is considered anti-Semitism and is punishable by law, including recently the banning of demonstrations and expressing opinions on the Palestinian issue, exposing the crimes of the Jews in Gaza, and denying their occupation of the land of Palestine. They consider the Jewish entity to be a right that cannot be revoked. In fact, Germany passed a law requiring citizenship applicants to acknowledge ‘Israel’s’ right to exist, and finally to criminalize anyone who participates or expresses his admiration for news or opinion on social media that they (i.e., the West) consider to praise terrorism or support what they call hatred between people, while they are the ones who set these definitions and define these terms and codify them according to their interest and not according to their reality or truth. They reached the point of passing a law banning the inverted red triangle symbol as a terrorist symbol supporting Hamas!

Thus, in denouncing Russia's measures to ban Western media, the West proves that it is a hypocrite, and even a disbeliever in its ideology, when it accepts the same measure on itself but prevents it from others, thereby violating its principles and constitutions.

It is known that the state of war imposes exceptional measures taken by warring countries to strengthen their position and to discourage low morale or influencing decisions, whether political or military. The Lawgiver (swt) drew attention to this in His (swt) saying:

[وَإِذَا جَاءَهُمْ أَمْرٌ مِّنَ الْأَمْنِ أَوِ الْخَوْفِ أَذَاعُوا بِهِ وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ وَإِلَى أُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ لَعَلِمَهُ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَنبِطُونَهُ مِنْهُمْ وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَاتَّبَعْتُمُ الشَّيْطَانَ إِلَّا قَلِيلاً]

“And when there comes to them something [i.e., information] about [public] security or fear, they spread it around. But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known about it. And if not for the favor of Allah upon you and His mercy, you would have followed Satan, except for a few” [An-Nisa: 83]

This is because the Prophet (saw), used to send battalions, and when they were victorious or were defeated, the hypocrites would hasten to inquire about their situation, spread the news about it, and announce it before the Messenger of Allah (saw) would announce it, thus weakening the hearts of the believers. This applies to the media policy of the Islamic State, the State is responsible for the media and publication of news. Allah (swt) has permitted lying to the enemy in a state of war, but otherwise it is forbidden for a Muslim and a non-Muslim, and therefore the search for the truth is a legitimate matter, and striving for honesty is the duty of every Muslim, and this is the policy of the Islamic State in taking care of the affairs of the Ummah, and carrying the Islamic call to all humankind.

These rulings came from Al-Muheet Al-Khabeer (the All-Knowing, All-Aware Creator), and not from limited, imperfect human beings. All legislation was sent down from Hakeem Aleem (the All-Wise and All-Knowing) to bring people out of darkness into light, and from the injustice of religions to the justice of Ar-Rahman (the Most Merciful).

The Central Media Office
of Hizb ut Tahrir