False claims and stolen bylines: The Russian propaganda strategy haunting the newsroom

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False claims and stolen bylines: The Russian propaganda strategy haunting the newsroom  As part of a trend that is becoming an increasing headache for the media, pro-Russian actors are spreading propaganda through fake news outlets and by impersonating real journalists.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/11/04/false-claims-and-stolen-bylines-the-russian-propaganda-strategy-haunting-the-newsroom  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00How are pro-Russian actors fueling fake bylines and sham news stories?

00:08Journalists are finding their names on stories they never wrote,

00:11while sham news sites bearing names which resemble legitimate outlets are cropping up online.

00:16This fits into a propaganda strategy orchestrated by pro-Russian disinformation actors,

00:22some of which are part of Russia's Storm 1516 operation.

00:25These operations are trying to give weight to the claims that they are putting out.

00:33And sometimes they also try to reach out to fact-checkers and other journalists,

00:40using these names and logos to make them believe that some information of importance needs to be verified.

00:51French journalist Romain Fiaschetti discovered his byline in a series of articles

00:57published on the now suspended Courrier France 24 website.

01:01One article falsely alleged that French nuclear waste company Orano

01:05was secretly bribing Armenian officials to dispose of France's waste.

01:10Other journalists who cover stories relevant to Russia have also been impersonated.

01:14The website The EU Insider used my name to publish a story about Moldovan president Maya Sandu

01:20claiming that she embezzled US ID funds.

01:24Of course, I've written about corruption, about politics in Romania, about Moldova a number of times,

01:29especially since they had this big election.

01:32I guess that's why they chose my name, because they saw someone who wrote about politics in English.

01:38Checkfirst, which tracks disinformation and foreign influence operations,

01:41has been urging journalists to take legal action,

01:44as well as to pressure platforms to remove false content.

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