PROPAGANDA AND СONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO INFORMATION DURING WARTIME ON THE BACKGROUND OF CLASHES BETWEEN TOTALITARIAN PRACTICES AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES

Abstract

The article deals with peculiarities of the implementation of the constitutional right to information in Ukraine under martial law in the context of such a constitutional principle as the prohibition of propaganda of war and other enmity, contrasting the practice of totalitarian states with the democratic principles of administration of the information area. The lack of studies of constitutional and legal aspects of propaganda as a type of information activity in Ukrainian jurisprudence has been pointed out. A retrospective analysis of the institute of propaganda in the 20th-21st centuries has been carried out. The author has concluded that the components of the implementation of such information activity as propaganda are: subject (source of propaganda) and object, which has, for its part, two varieties - a) to whom propaganda is directed (consumer and victim of propaganda) and b) against whom the propaganda is directed (a notoriously demonized victim of propaganda). Abuse of the constitutional right to information and freedom of the mass media always turns into a gradual building of propaganda, which aims, through the manipulation of public opinion, on the one hand, to make certain hostile, hateful images and narratives, on the other hand, requires the above-mentioned object (b) taking counter-propaganda measures, but with the availability of appropriate resources. Propaganda is an integral part of preparing and conducting wars, including information wars as an element of modern hybrid wars. The most eloquent example of the struggle for modern mass consciousness with the involvement of international actors was the russian military aggression against Ukraine. The subject of further publications should be? As the author believes, the problems of the legal conceptualization of propaganda and populism in the context of countering information wars, especially using the achievements of the current stage of the information revolution – cyberspace and social networks.