Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War
June 25th 2022
The war in Ukraine is also a battle of narratives. More and more memes are circulating on the web, depicting rising underdogs and fallen villains. There is a lot of clout in the funny pictures. Leaning against a table, with pounding music in the background and a cocktail in front of his nose, the staring cat Stepan became a viral hit overnight. But what many didn’t know until the outbreak of war: Stepan comes from Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. Since then, the contributions have shown a new reality: Stepan is on the run, his apartment destroyed. At least now his followers are shaken and right in the middle of the war.
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SOURCE = The New Zurich Times
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Russia threatens to sue Swiss newspaper over Putin caricature
July 18th 2022
The Russian government has threatened to sue a Swiss newspaper after it published a photoshopped picture of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian Embassy in Bern sent the Neue Zürcher Zeitung a letter of protest, claiming they may pursue legal action. The NZZ analysed how memes are shaping the war in Ukraine. On June 25, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) published a piece entitled Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War. In the article, journalist Marit Langschwager analysed how memes on the internet “often simplify complex processes,” such as events during the war in Ukraine. The article included several “memes” related to the conflict and speculated whether internet humour could be used to sway public opinion and diplomacy in future wars. While there was no direct attack on Vladimir Putin in the text, the NZZ did include a photoshopped image of the Russian President wearing a clown nose and sporting LGBTQ+ flag face paint.
This angered the Russian Embassy in Bern, which said in a letter to NZZ editor Eric Gujer that the “little-known young journalist” had surpassed other Swiss writers who “regularly spread inventions and insults against the Russian leadership, shamelessly and unpunished.” The embassy claimed the memes were created by “Ukrainian troll factories,” and are mere “reprints of stock images” characterised by “a flat sense of humour.” The embassy argued that the newspaper – one of the largest news outlets in Zurich – had “violated the honour and dignity of the president.” They also took ire at the LGBTQ+ flag on Putin’s face, which they said offends the “traditional Christian values of Russian society” and reflected how LGBTQ+ ideals are “forcefully promoted in the west.”
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SOURCE = I AM EXPAT
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Russia threatens Swiss newspaper with legal action for publishing image of Putin with a clown nose
July 17th 2022
Russian officials threatened a Swiss newspaper with a legal action after it published an image depicting President Vladimir Putin as a clown. Zurich newspaper the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, published the piece “Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War.” It discussed how viral images played a part in discussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The lead image featured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Iron Man next Putin with a clown nose and colorful face paint. Its intent appears to have been to illustrate the type of imagery used, rather than to argue that the newspaper or its writers consider Putin to be a clown. Russia’s embassy in Switzerland responded with a letter to the newspaper’s editor, describing itself as “extremely outraged” by the image.
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SOURCE = Business Insider
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Russian embassy threatens Swiss newspaper after publishing Putin clown memehttps://nypost.com/2022/07/17/russian-embassy-threatens-swiss-newspaper-for-putin-clown-meme/
July 17th 2022
They’re not clowning around. The Russian embassy in Switzerland sent a legal threat to a Swiss newspaper after the outlet published a caricature of President Vladimir Putin wearing a clown nose and rainbow streaks across his face, according to reports. The embassy’s press service, in a letter posted to its website Saturday, condemned the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung for publishing the image in a July 9 article about the role of memes and digital messaging in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Washington Post.
The article, titled “Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War,” shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky depicted in a Captain America-like suit with Ukrainian colors and symbols while Putin is next to him in a clown nose and rainbow makeup. “If we are speaking about clownery, it would be much more appropriate to touch on this topic in the context of the recent past of the former Ukrainian comedian V. Zelensky,” the embassy said in its letter. The “extremely outraged” embassy also argued, “We believe that freedom of expression is in no way compatible with the freedom to disseminate insults and fakes,” according to the Swiss news outlet Swissinfo.
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SOURCE = New York Post
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Russia threatens Swiss newspaper over Putin caricature
July 16th 2022
In a letter to NZZ editor Eric Gujer published on Saturday on the Russian Embassy in Switzerland’s press service website, it said it was “outraged” by publication of an “insulting caricature of the President of the Russian Federation” and reserved the right to take legal action for defamation and slander. “We believe that freedom of expression is in no way compatible with the freedom to disseminate insults and fakes,” the Russian embassy wrote. The reason is reportedly an article in the NZZ edition of July 9 entitled “Superheroes and villains show their clout on the Internet”, in which the paper looked at the propaganda war on social media by both sides that has been part of the Ukraine war on the ground.
The article was accompanied by a photo of Putin with a red clown nose and rainbow streaks on his face that had originally been published on Twitter. Swiss newspaper NZZ has not so far issued any comment. Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russia has been taking unprecedented domestic action against the media and opposition. The country has declared several organisations “undesirable” and described them as a “threat”. If foreign organisations, foundations or companies are deemed “undesirable”, Russians with links to such organisations face heavy fines or prison sentences of up to six years.
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SOURECE – SwissInfo
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