One of Bulgaria’s largest advertisers has announced that it will cease its “cooperation” with a news site described as “problematic”, ahead of the publication on Tuesday, December 5, of a report according to which major global brands spend 2 .6 billion dollars to disinformation. websites each year.
The report “Defunding Disinformation in the Balkans: How International Brands Support Russia’s Agenda» by Balkan Free Media Initiative, a Brussels-based NGO and Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), a civil society organization based in Belgrade, was made public on Tuesday.
Advanced copies were sent to major advertisers mentioned in the study.
The report focuses on Serbia, a candidate country for EU membership, and Bulgaria, an EU member state considered particularly vulnerable to disinformation.
The Bulgarian news site Blitz is singled out in the report as a “problem media” alongside two other websites, Pogulated information And Trud.
“Since the start of the war, these media outlets have systematically published pro-Kremlin disinformation, including that the Ukrainian armed forces were deliberately killing civilians, that Ukraine was a Nazi country, and that Bulgaria would become a forced participant in the war,” the report said.
A spokesperson for the German company Bosch, which had previously advertised with Blitz, said that currently there are no Bosch campaigns running at the point of sale. He explained that Bosch uses local agencies to place advertisements on platforms chosen based on criteria such as high reach and target audience profile.
Lidl, the German international discount retailer chain which operates more than 12,000 stores in all EU member states and Serbia, announced that it would end all cooperation with Blitz during the next financial year. Lidl is one of the leading advertisers in Bulgaria.
The authors of the report, which aims to defund disinformation media from advertising, say that ads from well-known brands send signals of legitimacy to viewers of misinformation.
Among the photos in the report are screenshots containing disinformation articles, alongside advertisements from major brands.
An article from Blitz with anti-Semitic overtones (“Soros envoy will issue ultimatum to Radev”) published before a visit to Bulgaria by the director of the US Office for Sanctions Coordination, James O’Brien, appears in one of the screenshots accompanied by a Lidl advertisement. Similar items carry the logos of other major brands.
Analysis of advertising data, according to the report, shows that major global brands are spending hundreds of millions of euros on advertising to media outlets in the Balkans that spread disinformation on topics such as Kremlin-related narratives. invasion of Ukraine, malicious pro-government propaganda, attacks on civil society, independent media and the political opposition, and speech undermining democratic values.
A joint analysis by NewsGuard and Comscore cited in the report finds that major global brands send $2.6 billion to disinformation websites each year.
Regarding Serbia, disinformation mainly affects mainstream media, including major TV channels and newspapers, which receive significant advertising revenue from global brands.
Conversely, disinformation in Bulgaria is less of a problem in mainstream media and is more widely promoted on websites.
In Serbia, advertising, particularly from non-Serbian brands, constitutes a crucial source of funding for the media. The report refers to market analysis firm Nielsen, which found that major companies such as Coca-Cola, Lidl, Delhaize and Procter and Gamble spent 1.02 billion euros on advertising in Serbia.
Television massively dominates spending with 989.6 million euros spent on five television channels and only 31.4 million euros allocated to the written press.
The report focused on TV Pink and TV Happy, considered one of the main sources of disinformation in Serbia on mainstream media channels.
Both TV Pink and TV Happy are very sympathetic to the government of President Aleksandar Vučić. According to a CRTA study, they devote more than 95% of their media coverage to favorable reports on the government and the ruling SNS party’s interlocutors, while marginalizing and attacking the opposition.
TV Pink received 45% of the total ad spend, while TV Happy received 10%.
In a screenshot included in the report, Serbian journalist and regular TV Happy contributor Đuro Bilbija reportedly said that Russia is fighting against “Hitler’s zombified European Union, which is trying to take revenge for 1945.” . illustrated with advertisements from Lidl and the Dutch-Belgian group Delhaize.
Antoinette Nikolova, director of the Balkan Free Media Initiative, told Euractiv that the response from major advertisers when contacted for comment was that they used local agencies for advertising distribution.
“Our recommendation remains to exercise increased due diligence on the media and support reliable sources through advertising,” she insisted.
“The German companies Lidl and Bosch responded to us by stopping their funds for one of the most widely read tabloids which broadcast brutal manipulations. This shows sensitivity to the issue,” she said.
(Editing by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic)