When you are in Romania, or reading about Romania, you might see little words that reveal bias, censorship, or other things.
For instance, some people complain about “censorship” because certain Russian news sites are not available. I will show some screenshots when I quickly researched the topic.
First, we see that there is a news agency available in Romania. It still uses the old “Russian” spelling for Ukraine’s capital, “Kiev.” Of course, using the older spelling doesn’t say everything. Older people who remember the world before the 1990s might still talk about Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and older Portuguese might call Luanda “Novo Lisboa” just because they are used to it.
When someone deviates from the standard, it might be old habits. I knew how to spell Kiev a long time ago, so I am still getting used to Kyiv. Also, I can’t pronounce Kyiv correctly, they both sound the same to me. To me, it looks Japanese, like Kyoto. I don’t see what the big deal is about spelling anyway, but if it really makes you happy, I’ll spell a word your way.
Anyway, back to Tass. When we look at the stories, they seem pro-Russian rather than pro-Ukrainian. So, we can see the Russian point of view in Europe. (There is censorship in other areas.)
Other “Russian” news sites that are available might use the newer “Kyiv” spelling. This isn’t necessarily proof of being pro-Ukrainian, as Russia hasn’t made a claim on the capital, but sometimes we can see something in place names.
Okay, so we tested out a couple of other “Russian propaganda” websites.
Russia Today and Sputnik are both blocked because they have old https settings. I have had my own websites “blocked” in a similar way when I failed to update the SSL certificates. But, yes, there has been news that certain websites have been blocked for “misinformation.” It is not a secret. Maybe the SSL certificates are up to date, they have just been censored.
There are little words in news reporting that reveal what you are getting. Sometimes, it is a place name. “The West Bank” vs “Palestine” vs “Judea and Samaria” vs “The Occupied Territories” tell us a different story right away. Maybe someone will use all those words, for maximum SEO. But, if someone uses only one term throughout, we start to get an idea of a possible point of view.
Historians of the American Civil War (or War Between the States) we have different names for different battles. Most people will say “Civil War” in English, but a few French sources call it “the Southern War of Secession.”
One thing we see a lot, that is just getting annoying, is people throwing around words like “settler colonialist,” “capitalist,” or “imperialist” without even knowing what those words mean. Left wing extremists will call the fascists “capitalist” just like fascists will call liberals “socialist.” But many kids use these words without realising that they are politically loaded.
“Far right” is being thrown around a lot too. Yes, perhaps someone is far right, but adjectives like that do not help. Tell me what someone does to deserve a political label. The political labels you give help to label you more than the person you are talking about. If you throw around the word “cukoo” then you are a cukoo bird. If you throw around “far right” all day long then maybe you are far right. (And the same goes for swear words.)
The color Orange helps, if you see an orange rose, it gives me a picture. If someone wears an orange vest, then I start to understand. If someone is tall, it kind of helps, but tall compared to what? Tell me the height, in meters or inches, and I understand much better.
Northern Ireland is a place, and we can look it up. The Northern lights are a phenomena. But if you just talk about Northern countries, it might be unclear what you mean.
What is a Nordic country? Does it include Finland? Greenland? Newfoundland? I guess it is a bit more clearly.
The Arab world? Countries where Arabic is an official language? Countries that were colonized by Arab settlers where the indigenous people were displaced by them? (Most “Arab” countries are, by definition, settler-colonialist states.)
In any case, if you see unclear language, then it might be evidence of bias. When funny words are thrown around, and you can’t quite define them, those might be propaganda words.
When two different people of the same generation and same dialect consistently use different words to describe the same thing, that might be evidence of a political disagreement. It is not necessarily that one is right and the other is wrong.
There are no true complete synonyms in English. Word choice is sometimes accidental, especially in second language speakers, but it can reveal a lot about the speaker.
The word “Cluj-Napoca” itself was politically charged at first. For most of us, it just helps us differentiate the city from the county. But, Napoca seems to be a “far right” addition to Cluj, creating a name that hadn’t been used for over 1500 years, to go to a glorified past. It has become commonplace now, but some older people are still uncomfortable with it.
Others might still say Klausseburg or Kolozsvar because they speak a different language that keeps the old names. Cluj doesn’t sound too good in central European languages.
So, we don’t need to judge others for word choice of any single word. However, it can provide a clue to where someone gets his or her information.