Intelligence Squared

Why Do Authoritarians Want To Control The News? With Martin Moore

November 28, 2025

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  • Governments globally, not just autocracies, are actively fighting back against the decentralized public sphere by deliberately regaining control over political narratives through media manipulation. 
  • Governments seek 'narrative dominance' by controlling the news agenda and facts, recognizing that controlling the majority of news production and dissemination is key to shaping public understanding. 
  • Authoritarian control over news is achieved through varied methods, ranging from China's long-term infrastructure control and Russia's creation of a 'sovereign reality' to Hungary and India's use of financial levers, advertising spending, and cultivating pro-government influencers. 

Segments

Introduction and Book Focus
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(00:01:01)
  • Key Takeaway: The focus of Martin Moore’s book, Dictating Reality, is the government fightback against platform power, specifically concerning control over the news.
  • Summary: The episode introduces Martin Moore, author of Dictating Reality, co-written with Thomas Colley, focusing on the global battle to control the news. The discussion clarifies that the book shifts focus from the power of technology platforms to the deliberate actions governments are taking to regain control of political narratives. This governmental fightback is seen as increasing authoritarian tendencies worldwide.
Importance of Controlling News
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(00:05:21)
  • Key Takeaway: News control is central to achieving ’narrative supremacy’ by allowing governments to set the agenda and control the facts that support their desired story.
  • Summary: Controlling the news is essential for governments aiming for narrative dominance globally. Even in a chaotic digital sphere, governments are progressively influencing news production structures, making it difficult for skeptical citizens to see information that challenges the official worldview. Controlling the majority of news moves a government far toward dominating the national narrative.
Narrative Dominance Explained
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(00:07:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Political power relies on strategic narratives, which function like stories with plot, characters, and moral lessons to shape public understanding beyond objective reality.
  • Summary: Understanding political power requires grasping the importance of storytelling, as most people make sense of the world through ’narrative realities’ rather than objective facts. A strategic narrative includes an origin story, binary characters (goodies and baddies), and a deterministic endpoint. Events are then reported through the prism of this overarching strategic narrative, ensuring facts fit the larger story, as exemplified by Russia’s framing of the war in Ukraine.
China’s Infrastructure Control
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(00:14:05)
  • Key Takeaway: China established control early by building a Great Firewall and leveraging technology companies to censor internally, then expanded externally by investing in global communications infrastructure.
  • Summary: China was determined not to replicate the Soviet Union’s collapse by controlling communications from the internet’s arrival, implementing the Golden Shield Programme (Great Firewall) from the 1990s. They mandated technology companies to censor content, leading to the exit of Western platforms and the growth of compliant domestic equivalents. Subsequently, China invested heavily in external infrastructure (satellites, cables) and provided free state news agency copy globally to infiltrate news organizations.
Hungary’s Institutional Takeover
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(00:21:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Hungary’s Fidesz government systematically captured the press by controlling regulation, installing loyalists in public broadcasting, and using an Orban associate to acquire and centralize hundreds of independent media outlets.
  • Summary: Hungary, an EU member, provides a model of an ‘illiberal democracy’ takeover starting in 2010 through regulatory changes and installing loyalists in public service broadcasting. A close associate of Viktor Orban rapidly amassed wealth via public contracts and then purchased hundreds of independent media organizations, which were later transferred to a government-run foundation. This process extended to cultivating right-wing influencers online, while maintaining just enough independent media to claim democratic legitimacy.
Brazil’s Social Media Ecosystem
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(00:27:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 election demonstrated the power of creating a conscious, deliberate parallel information ecosystem online, heavily reliant on WhatsApp due to telecom data deals.
  • Summary: Brazil’s election showed that a candidate dismissed by mainstream media could win by creating a parallel information ecosystem online, which became the primary source for many voters by 2022. This was facilitated by Brazilians’ high reliance on social media and messaging services like WhatsApp, where Meta had deals with telecoms that zero-rated data usage for its services. This structural dependency allowed the Bolsonaro government to bypass traditional media entirely.
Democratic Levers and UK Context
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(00:31:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Democratic governments possess subtle levers for media influence, such as controlling advertising spend and access, which are exploited by governments like India’s BJP and seen in minor forms in the UK.
  • Summary: Democratic governments have levers beyond overt autocratic control, including using advertising spending to direct funds toward favorable media outlets, as seen in India where broadcast news became almost entirely pro-BJP. Media organizations are vulnerable due to declining business models, making them sensitive to government advertising income and access. The UK has also seen practices like the Conservative Party criticizing the BBC and threatening its funding, mirroring tactics used elsewhere.
Fighting Back and Rebuilding Knowledge
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(00:34:54)
  • Key Takeaway: The information environment requires institutional evolution, highlighted by the growth of ’truth seekers’ like fact-checkers and OSINT experts who are essential for rebuilding the ‘constitution of knowledge.’
  • Summary: The response to captured news involves the evolution of democratic institutions and processes, exemplified by the growth of truth-seeking organizations. These groups, including open-source intelligence analysts and fact-checkers, challenge government narratives internationally. This effort aims to recreate and rebuild the essential institutions and processes—the ‘constitution of knowledge’—that verify and disseminate foundational ground truth.