Bruno Carvalho, a Portuguese politician and self-proclaimed “independent journalist”. He does live reports with staged content from Donetsk and Luhansk re, which are under Russian control.
Bruno’s political affiliation is with the communists, and he was elected to city hall of Amadora as a member of the communist party CDU/PCP. Allegedly he joined the party at a very young age, as there’s video footage of a 19-year old Bruno being interviewed about politics.
Perhaps due to his political background, Carvalho is all about them Ukrainian nazis. He calls the Azov Regiment “the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion”, being consistent with the views of his party, PCP.
In May, 2022, he published an image on Telegram of “Mein Kampf”, a book written by Austrian politician Adolf Hitler, on top of a Ukrainian flag. He claimed that his “fellow journalist” found the book inside an empty house in Rubizhne.
He’s also interviewed people who were “robbed” by the Ukrainian forces, and denied all sorts of war crimes conducted by the Russian forces, including mass graves in Mariupol.
In addition, this heroic “independent journalist” has reported on Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles that, based on Bruno, were used to attack civilians in the puppet states of DPR & LPR. During the fake referendums, Carvalho claimed on a news broadcast that “Donetsk is a country”.
Carvalho has also been a target of criticism in Portugal. For example, João Galamba, Minister of Infrastructure has mocked him and the content he’s shared on Twitter. Carvalho considered this a serious attack against his journalistic integrity and demanded an intervention from the Journalist’s Union.
Now, here comes the interesting part: Bruno Carvalho is a contributor for @cnnportugal. On their website, you can see various video reports from Bruno with titles like “It’s very difficult to justify a narrative that says it’s the Russians who are bombing themselves” and “I counted at least 50 rockets in this zone alone: this is the result of hours of consecutive attacks in Donetsk”. You know, variations of the “genocide in Donbas”. Narratives that Russia has been pushing since 2014.
It is necessary to have reports from both sides of the conflict, to ensure that the public receives a comprehensive understanding of what is happening. However, it is also important that other side shouldn’t be covered by “journalists” and have no respect towards journalistic ethics. And avoiding giving equal weight to both sides if one is clearly engaged in disinformation or propaganda (like Russia behave). The goal of journalism should always be to report the truth, not to provide a platform for misinformation.
Former MEP Ana Gomes asked the CNN about the issue, but neither @CNN or @cnnportugal responded to her. Carvalho’s shared a video of Zelenskyy with subtitles that turned out the be fake. He added a “correction” that suggested that the “opinions are divided” on what Zelenskyy actually said, which of course isn’t true. As of today, Bruno’s tweet is still available.
Carvalho’s been also going on about the Minsk agreement. He’s stated that Zelenskyy should’ve complied with the Minsk agreements instead of pushing for NATO.
But as many know, Russia never complied with the Minsk agreement, either. You can also read this fantastic analysis by @neil_abrams for more information.
Russia has a huge propaganda network in Latin America, and news channels like RT Español and Sputnik Mundo are very popular there. Portuguese is an official language in Brazil, a country with population of over 200 million people.
Yet it is kind of a “blind spot” for the Western analysts focusing on Russian propaganda and disinformation. “Journalists” like Carvalho have large presence in these areas, and their pro-Russian narratives are often published without any criticism.
In addition, contributing for a prestigious and well-known brand such as CNN, Bruno’s considered as a reliable source of information.
by @Pekka Kallioniemi and @Cbritinha
