Abstract
This study is a qualitative analysis of how the 24th Congress of Representatives of the Soviet Communist party was reported in the Finnish news services of Radio Moscow and the BBC. The study is designed to find out if and how the different ideologies distorted the reporting of the Congress and how the refined propaganda was used, either consciously or unconsciously. Brief analysis is also made of the reporting of the unsuccessful landing of the Soviet spacecraft 'Soljuz II' to compare how a negative event is presented. It was found that both stations reported the main issues of the Congress in a businesslike manner but differences occurred in their telling of international reactions to the Congress and of policy implications. The explicit reference to the Czechoslovakian crisis in 1968 is the only aspect that was not reported by Moscow in the same context as by the BBC but there was much material reported by Moscow ignored by the BBC. The author also examines what is meant by 'objective' news reporting.
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