MIA Rossiya Segodnya (; ) is a media group owned and operated by the

Russian government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russ ...

, created on the basis of

RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asset ...

. The group owns and operates

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for ...

, inoSMI and several other entities. The head of the organisation is

Dmitry Kiselyov Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselyov ( rus, Дмитрий Константинович Киселёв; born April 26, 1954), is a Russian propagandist. In 2013, Kiselyov was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to head '' Rossiya Segodnya ...

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (russian: link=no, Маргарита Симоновна Симоньян; born 6 April 1980) is a Russian journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organisations RT (formerly R ...

is the chief editor.

History

Rossiya Segodnya incorporates the former

news service and the international radio service

Voice of Russia Voice of Russia ( rus, Голос России, r=Golos Rossii), commonly abbreviated VOR, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik. Its interval signal ...

(formerly

Radio Moscow Radio Moscow ( rus, Pадио Москва, r=Radio Moskva), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. It was reorganized with a new name ...

). According to the Decree of the President of Russia on 9 December 2013, the mandate of the new agency is to "provide information on Russian state policy and Russian life and society for audiences abroad."

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

's chief of staff,

Sergei Ivanov Sergei Borisovich Ivanov ( rus, Сергей Борисович Иванов, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈrʲisəvʲɪtɕ ɪvɐˈnof; born 31 January 1953) is a Russian senior official and politician who has served as the Special Representative of ...

, said that Rossiya Segodnya was being created in order to increase the cost efficiency in Russian state media. However, RIA Novosti's own report about the move speculated it was an attempt to consolidate state control over the media sector and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

news outlets stated that this was also a move by Putin to propagate a more pleasant image of Russia abroad. According to a report on the RT news channel, Rossiya Segodnya is "in no way related" to the RT news channel despite the similarity in name (RT was known as Russia Today prior to its rebranding in 2009). However, a report by the BBC states that it "seems likely ..that ossiya Segodnyawill complement the work of the state-funded foreign-language TV station, RT." On 31 December 2013,

was appointed editor-in-chief of the news agency, as well as being RT's news channel editor-in-chief. She will serve in both positions concurrently. On 10 November 2014, the agency launched the

multimedia platform with Radio Sputnik as its audio component, replacing the

. The radio service is available internationally on FM, digital DAB/DAB+ (Digital Radio Broadcasting), HD-Radio, as well as mobile phones and the Internet. Within Russia itself, Rossiya Segodnya continues to use the RIA Novosti brand as its Russian-language news agency using the website ria.ru. In 2015 Rossiya Segondya received 6.48 billion rubles from the state budget. Following his transfer from Ukraine to Russia on 7 September 2019 as part of the Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchanges,

Kirill Vyshinsky Kirill Valeryevich Vyshinsky (russian: Кирилл Валериевич Вышинский; uk, Кирило Валерійович Вишинський ) (born 19 February 1967) is a journalist. He was the director of RIA Novosti's Ukraine bran ...

became the executive director of Rossiya Segodnya on 9 September 2019.

Projects

* inoSMI * ukraina.ru * Baltnews

Controversy

Allegations of homophobia

This organisatation is headed by

, a pro-Putin news presenter on the domestic

Russia-1 Russia-1 (russian: Россия-1) is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship ch ...

television channel, who has gained significant controversy in the

Western media Western media is the mass media of the Western world. During the Cold War, Western media contrasted with Soviet media. Western media has gradually expanded into developing countries (often, non-Western countries) around the world. History Th ...

with his remarks claiming foreign

conspiracies A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

against Russia and verbally abusing homosexuals. Kiselyov, who has been described as the "spearhead" of such anti-

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

propaganda on the network, has made various provocative comments regarding the Russian LGBTQ community. He has stated that a homosexual person's organs are unworthy of being transplanted to a heterosexual, and that gay men should be prohibited from donating blood or sperm. The Russian LGBTQ community has also been referred to by Kiselyov as an "aggressive minority" opposed to "parents fighting to give their children a healthy upbringing", stating falsified statistics that "40% of children brought up by homosexuals have

venereal disease Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and ora ...

s".

Allegations of censorship

On 1 December 2014, Ukrainian journalist Oleksandr Chalenko accused Rossiya Segodnya of censorship after an interview with the former Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a disputed en ...

, Igor Strelkov. The Strelkov's press service and the agency's editorial staff reduced it, removing the confirmation of Igor Strelkov's own title of Colonel of the FSB and the negative assessment of the assault by Donetsk airport units.

Awards

On 17 May 2017 MIA Rossiya Segodnya design center was awarded The Communicator Awards: gold - in the category "Marketing and Promotion" and two silver.

References

External links