The importance of context in reporting: a response to AFP's coverage of Putin

Dear Editor,

Being a loyal reader of the Weekend Argus I could not help but notice an article published in your newspaper on December 20, 2025 “Putin says ball in the court of West and Kyiv in Ukraine talks” that was apparently based on the material provided by AFP.

I truly hope your newspaper will not deny me the opportunity to provide a bit of additional data at least on some of the issues covered in that article so that the South Africans who rely on the French news agency to form their opinions get a chance to see that there are so many ways of playing with the information about the very same facts, and depending on the ways the news agencies choose to make the emphasis, whether they choose to disclose the information in full or in deliberately carved pieces, it can influence your stance on this or that subject a lot.

In particular AFP is quoting the Russian President at his annual press-conference as saying that “Russia would not attack other countries – as long as it was treated with respect” and then AFP is making a special point in the article that these words leave everyone to guess what he really meant as, according to AFP,Vladimir Putin didn’t clarify anything further.

Here I have to intervene and say that would not be the case if the French news agency chooses not to cut off the quote because when replying to the questions asked by a BBC News correspondent the following was said in fact: V.Putin: “You also asked whether there will be new special military operations.There will be none if we are treated with respect and if our interests are taken into account, just as we have consistently tried to take yours into account. But you deceived us, for example, with NATO’s eastward expansion. We were told there NATO would not expand 'one inch eastward' – that is a direct quote. And what happened? As they say it here, they simply deceived us and disregarded our security interests.” Now let your readers be the judges of whether it makes any difference or not,whether there is any more clarity needed on the meaning of the abovementioned words by Vladimir Putin.

In my view this particular situation is significant, not even because only half of the information is given to the readers, but what is far more important is that  we can see a careful choice about which half to give to the public. Isn't that reminiscent to some extent of the recent situation when BBC got involved in a scandal over an edit of US President Donald Trump’s speech before the US Capitol riot in a Panorama documentary? I also would like to draw your readers’ attention to the fact how the information was given about the recent decision by the Bank of Russia to lower the key interest rate. AFP insists that the only motive behind the decision is a slowdown in economic growth.

Why would AFP indeed care to mention that it has got something to do rather with the inflation gradually returning to the target? Here again I have to quote the Russian President at the press-conference as saying: “Our GDP growth is 1 percent; however, if we take the previous three years – this sort of review is also meaningful –, the overall growth has been 9.7 percent. Meanwhile, the Eurozone has shown 3.1 percent. As for the 1 percent growth this year and the economic growth rate in general, they are the result of deliberate actions by the Government, the Central Bank and the country’s leadership to target inflation.”

Journalism is all about emphasis, isn't it? I could go on with references to other inaccuracies or deliberate misjudgments made in the above mentioned article by AFP. Obviously some would expect me to jump to a conclusion saying that all Western news agencies publications should be replaced by Russia Today. I will not be calling for that.

Rather my point would be that in today’s world where Western media outlets consider themselves as the ultimate authority on Truth, we are all in desperate need for a more objective approach to covering global news – whether it is the information about Russia,Western Europe or Africa, diversifying the sources of information as much as possible.

Ruslan Golubovskiy

Consul General of the Russian Federation in Cape Town.