The European propaganda is no less dangerous than the Russian one. The case with Ursula von der Leyen’s flight to Plovdiv proved this in a painfully clear way. According to the European Commission and the Bulgarian authorities, the plane was subjected to jamming of the GPS signal, and the pilots had to land “using paper charts.” Numerous media outlets – among them respected ones like The Guardian – spread the version that the aircraft “circled in the air for more than an hour” and performed a “manual landing.” The suggestion was clear: Russia is to blame, Europe is under attack, Brussels is in danger. Yet the facts that later emerged from the only objective source with access to actual telemetry tell a different story. Flightradar24 officially stated that, according to their data, the GPS signal was stable throughout the flight. The delay was nine minutes. Not more. There is no evidence of a “total loss of navigation.” There is no data for “an hour of circling.” At Daily Press we also checked the time differences – the dry numbers categorically refute the sensational claims.
The discrepancy is troubling. On one side are official institutions and reputable media talking about a dramatic incident, on the other side are the numbers – dry but verifiable. When facts collide with narrative, in a normal democracy the journalist would choose the facts. Here, however, the opposite happened. The political story was chosen. This is dangerous. Because propaganda, when it comes from Brussels and Berlin, is more insidious than Kremlin propaganda. It is dressed in authority, delivered by institutions that claim objectivity, and spread by media outlets that like to call themselves “pillars of freedom.” Precisely because of this, Daily Press insists that reporting must start from the data, not from ready-made clichés.
Such cases are not isolated. In 2022, headlines about “Russian GPS shutdown over the Baltic” spread widely. Later, aviation authorities clarified that the disruptions were local, often caused by atmospheric conditions or technical specifics. But the corrections remained in small notes, while the sensational headlines had already shaped public opinion. Last year in Germany, the media exploded with “a massive Russian cyberattack” on hospitals. Days later, it turned out to be a problem with a local server. The corrections never made it to the front pages. The public remembered only “Russia attacked.” We see the same scheme again now. And here our role at Daily Press is clear – to remind readers of the facts, even when they don’t sound so dramatic.
This has serious consequences. First, facts are replaced with insinuations, which erodes trust in the media. Second, society gets used to living in a state of constant hysteria, where every delayed plane or network outage becomes an “attack.” Third, institutions take advantage of media loyalty to push convenient geopolitical narratives without providing evidence. This is no longer journalism, it is information discipline. At Daily Press we have been warning for years that this model kills critical thinking and turns freedom of speech into a mere backdrop.
The scariest part is that such propaganda can produce effects comparable to Russian disinformation. It creates an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, where every doubt about the official narrative is branded “pro-Russian.” It kills critical thinking because it places citizens in the role of a constant audience to pre-packaged suggestions. It distorts reality to the point where people can no longer tell a technical fact from a political interpretation.
Europe risks losing its moral advantage. If the Kremlin lies, it is expected – no one expects transparency from an authoritarian regime. But when Brussels lies, it is destructive. Because Europe claims to be the standard of truth, democracy, and freedom. If that standard is compromised, what remains? If today we lie about a nine-minute delay, tomorrow we will lie about an entire war. If today we frighten the public with “an hour of circling” without evidence, tomorrow we might lead it to decisions with irreversible consequences.
The truth is simple and impartial. The flight was delayed nine minutes. The GPS signal was stable according to telemetry. The plane landed normally. Everything beyond that is interpretation, suggestion, or political propaganda. When Europe allows its own institutions and media to replace facts with stories, it loses the battle not with Russia, but with itself.
The danger is not whether someone jammed Ursula von der Leyen’s GPS signal. The danger is that Europe is jamming its own truth. And here, at Daily Press, we will continue to remind: the journalist’s task is not to serve convenient narratives, but to protect the facts from hysteria.
