The ABC’s Foreign Correspondent episode The Doctor vs The President aired on 2 June makes a stark contrast with the previous episode related to the COVID-19 situation in Britain. Unlike the latter, offering a multifaceted view based on a diversity of perspectives, the Russian episode is a simplified black-and-white cartoon-style picture.
One would not find there an impartial analisys of the Russian government and society response to the pandemic which in many ways benefits from the lessons learned by other countries including Australia. Right from the beginning, the ABC reporter postulates the Russian government’s “disinformation and failure”. To substantiate this he relies in fact on just one source - an opposition political activist Anastasia Vasilieva. She is portrayed as being brutally prosecuted by the government for exposing the lack of protection for the health workers the authorities allegedly sought to conceal.
A simple fact-check at Russian official websites would show that the growing demand for personal protective equipment (not unknown to any country hit by the pandemic) has been admitted by the authorities and the measures to address the problem openly discussed, often live. The ABC correspondent could have also considered that the “brutal prosecution” of Ms.Vasilieva in fact boils down to several hours of detention in the police precinct as a result of defying lockdown restrictions, something that is hardly encouraged in any country, includung Australia.
All in all, as it seems, in the case of The Doctor vs The President standarts of objective journalism were deemed neglectable. Still, this Foreign Correspondent episode is remarkable. It serves as a vivid example of the mainstream media imposing biased views about Russia on the Australian public.