RT, formerly Russia Today (), is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the

Russian government The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

. It operates

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

and

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...

s directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese and Serbian. RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

registered as an "autonomous non-commercial organization" (ANO) and founded by the Russian state news agency FSUE

RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created ...

in April 2005. During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia. RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

in 2009,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

in 2014 and French in 2017.

RT America RT America was a U.S.-based news channel headquartered in Washington, D.C. Owned by TV Novosti and operated by production company T&RProductions, it was a part of the RT network, a global multilingual television news network based in Moscow an ...

(2010–2022),

RT UK RT UK, also known as Russia Today, was a free-to-air television news channel based in the United Kingdom. It was part of the RT network, a Russian state-controlled international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russi ...

(2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the

Ruptly Ruptly GmbH is a Russian state-owned video news agency specializing in video-on-demand, based in Berlin, Germany. It is a subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled television network RT. Ruptly owns the media channel Redfish and is the major s ...

video agency, which owns the Redfish video channel and the

Maffick Maffick LLC is a social media digital content company based in Los Angeles, California that has been labelled a Russian state-backed entity by Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube due to its connections to German-based Maffick Media GmbH, which ...

digital media company. RT has regularly been described as a major

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

. UK media regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content. In 2012, RT's

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (born 6 April 1980) is a Russian media executive. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,Russian Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...

. Referring to the

Russo-Georgian War The August 2008 Russo-Georgian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Georgia,Occasionally, the war is also referred to by other names, such as the Five-Day War and August War. was a war waged against Georgia by the Russian Federation and the ...

, she stated that it was "waging an

information war Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from ''cyberwarfare'' that attacks computers, software, and ...

, and with the entire Western world". In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a

foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the Diplomatic immunity, protections offered to those working in their official capacity fo ...

with the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

under the

Foreign Agents Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ( ''et seq.'') is a United States law that imposes Public disclosure of private facts, public disclosure obligations on Foreign agent, persons representing foreign interests.

. RT was banned in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

in 2014 after

Russia's annexation of Crimea Annexation of Crimea may refer to: * Annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire (1783) *Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, a ...

;

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

implemented similar bans in 2020.

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

banned

RT DE RT DE (formerly RT Deutsch) is a German-language television channel based in Moscow, with a former office in Berlin. It is part of the RT network, a Russian state-controlled international television network, funded by the Russian government. ...

in February 2022. During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

formally banned RT and independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT. Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

, while

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia. However, RT content continues to be laundered through third-party sites.

History

Foundation

RT's formation was part of a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

effort by the

Russian Government The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

in 2005 to improve Russia's image abroad. RT was conceived by former media minister

Mikhail Lesin Mikhail Yuryevich Lesin () was a Russian political figure, media executive and advisor to president Vladimir Putin. In 2006, he was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", one of Russia's highest state decorations for civilians. Lesin ...

Andrew Osborn
Russia's 'CNN' wants to tell it like it is
, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 16 August 2005. and Aleksei Gromov. At the time of RT's founding,

director

Svetlana Mironyuk Svetlana Vasiliyevna Mironyuk (Russian: Светлана Васильевна Миронюк) is a Russian top manager who is currently a Professor of Business Practice, Innovation catalyst and Dean for Operations and Digital at SKOLKOVO School ...

stated: "Unfortunately, at the level of mass consciousness in the West, Russia is associated with three words: communism, snow and poverty", and added "we would like to present a more complete picture of life in our country". RT is funded by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media, part of the government of Russia. In 2005, RIA Novosti founded ANO TV-Novosti (or "Autonomous Non-profit Organization TV-News") to serve as the parent organization for RT. ANO TV-Novosti was registered on 6 April 2005, and Sergey Frolov () was appointed its

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

The channel was launched as Russia Today on 10 December 2005. At its launch, the channel employed 300 journalists, including approximately 70 from outside Russia.Julian Evans
Spinning Russia
,

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

, 1 December 2005. Russia Today appointed

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (born 6 April 1980) is a Russian media executive. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, Simonyan, aged 25 years old when she was appointed, was a former Kremlin pool reporter who had worked in journalism since she was 18. She told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' that after the

fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

, many new young journalists were hired, resulting in a much younger pool of staffers than other news organizations.Stephen Heyman
A Voice of Mother Russia, in English
, ''

'', 18 May 2008. Journalist

Danny Schechter Daniel Isaac Schechter (June 27, 1942 – March 19, 2015) was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign policy, jo ...

(who has appeared as a guest on RT) stated that, having been part of the launch staff at

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, he saw RT as another "channel of young people who are inexperienced, but very enthusiastic about what they are doing".Shaun Walker
Russia Today, Tomorrow the World
,

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, 20 September 2010. Shortly after the channel was launched, James Painter wrote that RT and similar news channels such as

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...

and

TeleSUR Telesur (stylized as teleSUR) is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. First proposed in 2005 and subsidized ...

saw themselves as "counter-hegemonic", offering a differing vision and news content from that of

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 T ...

like CNN and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Development and expansion

Dmitry Medvedev took part in the launch of Russia Today Documentary

Vladimir Putin - Visit to Russia Today television channel 2

RT launched several new channels in ensuing years: the Arabic language channel

Rusiya Al-Yaum RT Arabic, formerly known as Rusiya Al-Yaum (), is a Russian state-owned free-to-air television news channel broadcasting in Arabic and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Rusiya Al-Yaum started broadcasting on 4 May 2007. The parent company o ...

in 2007, the Spanish language channel Actualidad RT in 2009, RT America – which focuses on the United States – in 2010, and the RT Documentary channel in 2011. In August 2007, Russia Today became the first television channel to report live from the North Pole (with the report lasting five minutes and 41 seconds). An RT crew participated in the

Arktika 2007 Arktika 2007 () was a 2007 expedition in which Russia performed the first ever crewed descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole, as part of research related to the 2001 Russian territorial claim, one of many territorial claims in the Arct ...

Russian polar expedition, led by

Artur Chilingarov Artur Nikolaevich Chilingarov (; 25 September 1939 – 1 June 2024) was an Armenian-Russian polar explorer, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1986 and the title of ...

on the '' Akademik Fyodorov''

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

. On 31 December 2007, RT's broadcasts of New Year's Eve celebrations in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

were broadcast in the hours prior to the New Year's Eve event at New York City's

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

. Russia Today drew particular attention worldwide for its coverage of the

2008 South Ossetia war The August 2008 Russo-Georgian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Georgia,Occasionally, the war is also referred to by other names, such as the Five-Day War and August War. was a war waged against Georgia by the Russian Federation and the ...

.David Weigel
Pravda Will Set You Free; Russia's answer to Fox News and MSNBC.
, ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', 27 June 2011. RT named

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

as the aggressor against the

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

governments of

South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

and

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

, which were protected by Russian troops. RT saw this as the incident that showcased its newsgathering abilities to the world. Margarita Simonyan stated: "we were the only ones among the English-language media who were giving the other side of the story – the South Ossetian side of the story". In 2009, Russia Today was rebranded to "RT", which

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

academics Jack Nassetta and Kimberly Gross described as an " ttemptto shed state affiliation". Simonyan said the company had not changed names but the company's corporate logo was changed to attract more viewers: "who is interested in watching news from Russia all day long?" Julia Ioffe also describes 2009, when the Barack Obama administration came to office "promising a different approach toward Russia", as a time when RT became "more international and less anti-American", and "built a state-of-the-art studio and newsroom" in the U.S. capital In early 2010, RT unveiled an advertising campaign to promote its new "Question More" slogan. The campaign was created by Ketchum, GPlus, and London's Portland PR. One of the advertisements featured as part of the campaign showed U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

morphing Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Si ...

into Iranian leader

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

and asked: "Who poses the greatest nuclear threat?" The ad was banned in American airports. Another showed a Western soldier "merging" with a

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

fighter and asked: "Is terror only inflicted by terrorists?"Ian Burrell
From Russia with news
, ''

'', 15 January 2010. One of RT's 2010 billboard advertisements won the British Awards for National Newspaper Advertising "Ad of the Month".RT's Advertising Declared Ad of the Month in UK
, RT (TV network), 5 March 2010. In 2010,

Walter Isaacson Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American journalist who has written biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Doudna and Elon Musk. As of 2024, Isaacson is a profes ...

, Chairman of the U.S. Government's

Broadcasting Board of Governors The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) from 1994 to 2018, is an independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information for regions of the world wi ...

, which runs

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

and

Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a news service that publishes online news, information, commentary and broadcasts radio programs for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editorially independent reporting, has the stated mission of pro ...

, called for more money to invest in the programs because "We can't allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies", specifically mentioning Russia Today,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Press TV Press TV (stylised as PRESSTV) is an Iranian state-owned news media organisation, owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), that broadcasts in the English and French languages. The 24-hour channel, which has headquarters in Tehra ...

and China's

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...

(CCTV) in the following sentence. He later explained that he actually was referring to "enemies" in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, not the countries he mentioned. In 2011, Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

stated that the U.S. was "losing the information war" abroad to foreign channels like RT,

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

and China Central Television and that they were supplanting the Voice of America.

2012–2021

In early 2012, shortly after his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Russia,

Michael McFaul Michael Anthony McFaul (born October 1, 1963) is an American academic and diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul became the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studies in ...

challenged Margarita Simonyan on Twitter about allegations from RT that he had sent Russian opposition figure

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

to study at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. According to RT, McFaul was referring to a comment in an article by political scientist Igor Panarin, which RT had specified were the views of the author. McFaul then accepted an interview by Sophie Shevardnadze on RT on this and other issues and reasserted that the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

wanted a "reset" in relations with Russia. On 17 April 2012, RT debuted '' World Tomorrow'', a news interview programme hosted by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

. The first guest on the program was

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

leader

Hassan Nasrallah Hassan Nasrallah (, ; 31 August 196027 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024. Bor ...

.Alessandra Stanley
The Prisoner as Talk Show Host; Julian Assange Starts Talk Show on Russian TV
, ''

'', 17 April 2012. The interview made global headlines as Nasrallah rarely gives interviews to Western media. Commentators described this as a "coup". WikiLeaks described the show as "a series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world". It stated that the show is "independently produced and Assange has control"; WikiLeaks offers a "Broadcasters license, only".Douglas Lucas
Julian Assange prepares his next move
, ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

'', 23 February 2012. Assange said that RT allowed his guests to discuss things that they "could not say on a mainstream TV network". Assange's production company made the show and Assange had full editorial control. Assange said that, if WikiLeaks had published large amounts of compromising data on Russia, his relationship with RT might not have been so comfortable. In August of that year, RT suffered a

denial of service In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host co ...

attack. Some people linked the attack to RT's connection with Assange, and others to an impending court verdict related to

Pussy Riot Pussy Riot is a Feminism in Russia, Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by the th ...

. On 23 October 2012, RT, along with Al Jazeera and

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

, broadcast the

Free and Equal Elections Foundation The Free & Equal Elections Foundation (Free & Equal) is a 501(c) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization in the United States, the mission of which is to empower American people, American voters through education and advoca ...

third-party debate among four third-party candidates for President of the United States. On 5 November, RT broadcast the two candidates that were voted winners of that debate, Libertarian Party candidate Governor

Gary Johnson Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th List of governors of New Mexico, governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republica ...

and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

candidate

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and perennial candidate who was the Green Party of the United States, Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign ...

, from RT's

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

studio. In May 2013, RT announced that former CNN host

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American TV and radio host presenter, author, and former spokesman. He was a WMBM radio interviewer in the Miami area in the 1950s and 1960s and beginning in ...

would host a new talk show on RT. King said in an advertisement on RT: "I would rather ask questions to people in positions of power, instead of speaking on their behalf." As part of the deal, King would also bring his

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

series ''

Larry King Now ''Larry King Now'' is an American television talk show hosted by Larry King, available on Ora TV, Hulu, and RT America. Launched on July 17, 2012, the series featured interviews with newsmakers, world leaders, celebrities, and Internet stars. T ...

'' to RT. On 13 June 2013, RT aired a preview telecast of King's new Thursday evening program ''Politicking'', with the episode discussing

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

's leaking of the

PRISM surveillance program PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet c ...

. Vladimir Putin visited the new RT broadcasting centre in June 2013 and stated:

"When we designed this project back in 2005 we intended introducing another strong player on the international scene, a player that wouldn't just provide an unbiased coverage of the events in Russia but also try, let me stress, I mean – try to break the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on the global information streams. ... We wanted to bring an absolutely independent news channel to the news arena. Certainly the channel is funded by the government, so it cannot help but reflect the Russian government's official position on the events in our country and in the rest of the world one way or another. But I'd like to underline again that we never intended this channel, RT, as any kind of apologetics for the Russian political line, whether domestic or foreign."Visit to Russia Today television channel
, Kremlin.ru website, 11 June 2013

In early October 2014, RT announced the launch of a dedicated news channel,

, aimed at British audiences. The new channel began operating on 30 October 2014. In October 2016, the

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

bank stated that they will no longer provide banking services to RT in the UK without providing any reasons. This decision was criticised by Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT, and the Russia Government. Simonyan sarcastically tweeted that: "Long live freedom of speech!" However, NatWest reversed its decision in January 2017, said it had reached a resolution with RT. Simonyan said the decision showed that "common sense has prevailed". In 2018, some of the RT staff started a new media project, Redfish.media, that positioned itself as "grassroots journalism". The website was criticized by activist Musa Okwonga for deceptively interviewing him and then distributing it across RT channels while hiding its real affiliation. Another similar RT project is ''In the NOW'', started in 2018. On 15 February 2019, Facebook temporarily blocked the ''In the NOW'' page, saying that even though it does not require pages to disclose who funds them, it had suspended the page so viewers would not "be misled about who's behind them". Anissa Naouai, CEO of

, which published the page, described the blocking as "unprecedented discrimination", and said that Facebook did not ask other channels to declare their parent company and financial affiliations. As of February 2019, a majority of Maffick stock was controlled by

, an RT subsidiary, with Naouai owning the remaining 49%. Facebook unblocked the page on 25 February 2019; Naouai said the company had agreed to do so once the page was updated to feature information on ''In the NOW''s funding and management. She added that this requirement has been applied to no other Facebook page. ''In the NOW'' also has an active channel on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and regularly posts videos from

Soapbox A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment ...

, a Maffick-owned channel. In February 2021, Matt Field from the ''

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...

'' reported that RT had created an account on Gab, a

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

known for its

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

userbase, right before the start of former

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's second impeachment trial. Field commented that RT had posted several articles on its Gab account, including one criticizing

The Lincoln Project The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee (PAC) founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism. During the 2020 presidential e ...

, an organization run by anti-Trump Republicans. In December 2021 RT launched a TV channel in Germany, RT DE TV using a license for cable and satellite broadcasting issued in Serbia. A week after the launch, on 22 December the channel was removed from broadcasting via European satellites by the European satellite operator at the request of the German media regulator.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 27 February 2022, the president of the European Commission

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...

announced the

would ban RT and Sputnik (plus their subsidiaries) from operating in its 27 member countries. The ban resulted in RT being blocked on downstream television networks located outside EU, such as the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

as they were dependent on EU companies for the signal feed to RT. Canadian telecom companies Shaw, Rogers,

Bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

and

Telus Telus may refer to: * Telus Corporation, a Canadian publicly traded holding company ** Telus Communications, a telecommunications company ** Telus Digital, a technology company ** Telus Health, a health technology provider ** Telus Mobility T ...

announced they would no longer offer RT in their channel lineups (although Rogers replaced its RT broadcasts with a Ukrainian flag). This move was praised by Canada's Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez who called the network the "propaganda arm" of Vladimir Putin. On 28 February, Ofcom announced they had opened 15 expedited investigations into RT. These investigations will be focused on the 15 news editions broadcast on 27 February between 05:00 and 19:00 and will check if the coverage broke impartiality requirements in the broadcast code. On 2 March, the regulation was published which meant the ban was in force.

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, and

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

made RT's and Sputnik's social media content unavailable to users in the European Union on 28 February.

removed RT and Sputnik from

MSN MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...

, the

Microsoft Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

, and the

Microsoft Advertising Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is an online advertising platform developed by Microsoft, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements to web users. It provides pay per click advertising on search engines Bing, Yahoo! and DuckDu ...

network on the same day. YouTube, on 1 March, banned access to all RT and Sputnik channels on its platform in Europe (including Britain).

followed by removing RT and Sputnik from its

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

in all countries except Russia.

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...

dropped the RT app from its channel store, while

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

pulled

from its channel lineup. On 1 March, the National Administration of Telecommunications of Uruguay announced the removal of RT from the Antel TV streaming platform. New Zealand satellite television provider

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

also removed RT, citing complaints from customers and consultation with the

Broadcasting Standards Authority The Broadcasting Standards Authority (; abbreviated BSA) is a New Zealand Crown entity created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 to develop and uphold standards of broadcasting for radio, free-to-air and pay television. The main functions of the B ...

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

blocked new outgoing links to RT and Sputnik on 3 March. On 11 March, YouTube blocked RT and Sputnik worldwide. From 16 March, the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

officially banned RT and RT France from the list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution. On 8 March 2022, RT France challenged the EU ban of its activities in the General Court of the

Court of Justice of the European Union The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ( or "''CJUE''"; Latin: Curia) is the Judiciary, judicial branch of the European Union (EU). Seated in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, this EU ins ...

. After refusing to "urgently" consider the case on 30 March, the General Court dismissed the case on 27 July 2022, ruling that the ban against RT was justified. Between 22 and 26 February 2022, a couple of days before and after the

, "posts on Facebook from RT and Sputnik got more than 5 million likes, shares and comments". On YouTube, videos of "false stories, claiming that Ukrainians had attacked Russians or describing a 'genocide' against Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the separatist Donbas region," were watched "73 million times." During the invasion, hacktivist collective

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

launched a

distributed denial of service In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conne ...

attack that temporarily disabled the websites of RT and other Russian government-controlled organizations. In March 2022, RT America closed and most of its staff ceased to work for the outlet. RT began selling merchandise emblazoned with the "Z" military symbol – a pro-

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

and pro-war emblem – a few days after the start of the invasion. In March 2022, ''

Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...

'' reported that RT had established a channel on Gab's video sharing platform Gab TV, which describes itself as a "free speech broadcasting platform." ''Vice News'' observed that Gab CEO Andrew Torba had given his support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Torba publicly supported RT, claiming that they are being subject to the same censorship as American conservatives "by

Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...

and the globalist regime". Torba also falsely claimed that Gab is "the one place on the internet where you can find RT News" when RT also has a presence on video sharing platform Rumble. Not all branches of RT have suffered declines since the war started. Interactions with the Arabic-language Facebook page "RT Online" grew 161.2% from 28 February to mid-March, "RT Play in Español" went up a 22.5%. In October 2022, RT presenter Anton Krasovsky said on air that Ukrainian children who had in the past criticised the Soviet Union as occupiers of Ukraine should have been drowned or burned; he additionally laughed at reporting that Russian soldiers raped elderly Ukrainian women during the 2022 invasion. He was subsequently suspended by Simonyan, and criminal case investigation was opened. In September and October 2022, RT launched RT Hindi and RT Balkan, to expand its audience.

2023–present

In September 2023, RT launched its online platform in Portuguese, as "RT Brazil". On August 9, 2024 the broadcast and other equipment from the RT studio in Washington DC were auctioned off. On September 16, 2024, Meta announced that it would ban RT from its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, for foreign interference activity.

Organization

State-owned RIA Novosti news agency, which founded RT in 2005, is one of the largest in Russia. Its former chairperson was Svetlana Mironyuk, who modernised the agency after being appointed in 2003. In 2007, RT established offices in the same building as RIA Novosti, after the Russian Union of Journalists was forced to vacate them. In 2012, Anna Kachkayeva, Dean of Media Communications at Moscow's

Higher School of Economics HSE University (), officially the National Research University Higher School of Economics () is a public research university founded in 1992 and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Along with its main campus located in the capital, the university ...

, stated that the two organizations "share the same roof" because they are located in the same building, but in "funding, editorial policy, management and staff, they are two independent organisations whose daily operations are not interconnected in any way".RIA Novosti Does Not Control RT Television – Russian Media Experts
RIA Novosti, 6 February 2012. In 2008, Simonyan noted that more than 50 young RT journalists had gone on to take positions in large Western media outlets. By 2010, RT's staff had grown to 2,000. In December 2012, RT moved its production studios and headquarters to a new facility in Moscow. The move coincided with RT's upgrade of all of its English-language news programming to high-definition. In 2013, a presidential decree issued by Vladimir Putin dissolved RIA Novosti, replacing it with a new information agency called

Rossiya Segodnya MIA Rossiya Segodnya (; ) is a media group owned and operated by the Russian government, created on the basis of RIA Novosti. The group owns and operates Sputnik, RIA Novosti, inoSMI and several other entities. The head of the organisation is ...

(directly translated as ''Russia Today''). On 31 December 2013, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT news channel, was also appointed editor-in-chief of the new news agency while maintaining her duties for the television network. From 18 August 2020 to 18 August 2021, ANO TV Novosti was owned by the federal state

unitary enterprise A unitary enterprise () is a government-owned corporation in Russia and some other post-Soviet states. Unitary enterprises are business entities that have no ownership rights to the assets that they use in their operations. This form is possibl ...

RAMI RIA Novosti () and the Association for the Development of International Journalism (ADIJ; ), which was founded by Margarita Simonyan and few other RT associates. On 18 August 2021, RAMI RIA Novosti was liquidated and the ownership of ANO TV Novosti was transferred to ADIJ.

Budget

When it was established in 2005, ANO TV-Novosti invested $30 million in start-up costs to establish RT,Beth Knobe
"Russian News, English Accent: New Kremlin Show Spins Russia Westward"
, ''

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

'', 12 December 2005 with a budget of $30 million for its first year of operation. Half of the network's budget came from the Russian government; the other half came from pro-Kremlin commercial banks at the government's request. Its annual budget increased from approximately $80 million in 2007 to $380 million in 2011, but was reduced to $300 million in 2012.Marcin Maczka
The Propaganda Machine
, New Eastern Europe website, 9 July 2012, originally published in New Eastern Europe: New Europe, Old Problems No. 3 (IV), 2012. President Putin prohibited the reduction of funding for RT on 30 October 2012. About 80 percent of RT's costs are incurred outside Russia, paying partner networks around $260 million for the distribution of its channels in 2014. In 2014, RT received 11.87 billion

rubles The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are su ...

($310 million) in government funding and was expected to receive 15.38 billion rubles ($400 million) in 2015. (For comparison, the bigger

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

Group had a $376 million budget in 2014–15.) At the start of 2015, as the ruble's value plummeted and a ten percent reduction in media subsidies was imposed, it was thought that RT's budget for the year would fall to about $236 million. Instead, government funding was increased to 20.8 billion rubles (around $300 million) in September. In 2015, RT was expected to receive 19 billion rubles ($307 million) from the Russian government the following year. As of 2022, RT is the leader in terms of state funding among all Russian media. Between 2022 and 2024, RT will receive 82 billion rubles.

Network

According to RT as of March 2022, the network's feed is carried by 22 satellites and over 230 operators, providing a distribution reach to about 700 million households in more than 100 countries. RT also stated that RT America was available to 85 million households throughout the United States, as of 2012.Fred Weir
Russia gives WikiLeaks' Julian Assange a TV platform
, ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'', 25 January 2012. In addition to its main English language channel RT International, RT UK and RT America, RT also runs Arabic-language channel Rusiya Al-Yaum, Spanish language channel Actualidad RT, as well as the RTDoc documentary channel. RT maintains 21 bureaus in 16 countries, including those in Washington, D.C., New York City; London, England; Paris, France; Delhi, India;

Cairo, Egypt Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and

Baghdad, Iraq Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. The sharp decline in the ruble at the end of 2014 forced RT to postpone German- and French-language channels. In addition to

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

, RT also operates the following websites: ''RT на русском'' (in Russian), '' RT en français'' (French),

(German). In 2015, RT's YouTube news channels were: RT (the main channel), RT America, RT Arabic, RT en Español, RT Deutsch, RT French, RT UK, RT на русском and the newly launched RT Chinese. The German service (RT DE) was removed from YouTube in September 2021 for breaking the websites rules on COVID misinformation. The

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

's Digital Forensic Research Lab and ''

Meduza ''Meduza'' (Russian: Медуза, named after the Greek goddess Medusa) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ...

'' wrote that the Russian edition of RT "aggressively" promoted COVID-19 vaccination in Russia, calling anti-vaccination activists "imbeciles", while foreign RT channels were simultaneously promoting the same anti-vaccination misinformation that it criticized in Russia. In September 2012, RT signed a contract with Israeli-based RRSat to distribute high-definition feeds of the channel in the United States, Latin America and Asia. In October 2012, RT's Rusiya Al-Yaum and RT joined the high-definition network

Al Yah Satellite Communications Al Yah Satellite Communications Company P.J.S.C. (Yahsat) is a public company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, offering multi-mission satellite services in more than 150 coun ...

("YahLive").Russia Today and Rusiya Al-yaum join Yahlive's high definition bouquet

, AMEinfo.com. On 12 July 2014, during his visit to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, Putin announced that Actualidad RT would broadcast

in the country, the first foreign television channel to do so there. According to

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

, Argentina's State Media Authorities decided to suspend RT on 11 June 2016, along with Venezuelan television channel

TeleSur Telesur (stylized as teleSUR) is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. First proposed in 2005 and subsidized ...

, which had both been authorized by the previous left-leaning government of

Cristina Kirchner Cristina is a female given name, and it is also a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile), 11th-century English princess * Cristina (singer), Cristina Monet-Palaci (1956–2020), American ...

. Officially, Argentina wanted to devote RT's frequency to domestic broadcasts. RT was made available on the dominant Australian subscription television platform

Foxtel NXE Australia Pty Ltd, trading as the Foxtel Group, is an Australian pay television company that operates cable television, direct-broadcast satellite, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April ...

on 17 February 2015.

Ratings/impact

;Audience ratings The RT website (as of March 2022), maintains that "since June 2012", RT has "consistently and significantly outperforms other foreign channels including Euronews and Fox News. RT's quarterly audience in the UK is 2.5 million viewers". However, according to ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', citing leaked documents from "Vasily Gatov, a former RIA Novosti employee" (as of 2015) RT "hugely exaggerates its viewership,"; and its most-watched segments were on apolitical subjects. Between 2013 and 2015, over 80% of RT's viewership was for videos of accidents, crime, disasters, and natural phenomena, such as the 2013

Chelyabinsk meteor The Chelyabinsk meteor () was a superbolide that entered Earth's atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia on 15 February 2013 at about 09:20 YEKT (03:20 UTC). It was caused by an approximately , near-Earth asteroid that entered ...

event, with less than 1% of viewership for political videos. In late 2015, all of the 20 most-watched videos on its main channel, totaling 300 million views, were described as "disaster/novelty". Of the top 100, only a small number could be categorized as political, with only one covering Ukraine. The most popular video of Russian president Putin shows him singing "

Blueberry Hill "Blueberry Hill" is a popular American song published in 1940 and first recorded and released by Sammy Kaye in 1940 on RCA Victor. It is best remembered for its 1950s rock and roll version by Fats Domino. Glenn Miller peaked at no. 2 on the ' ...

" at a 2010 St. Petersburg charity event. In 2017, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' analysed RT's popularity and concluded that "it's not very good at its job" as "Moscow's propaganda arm" due to its relative unpopularity. RT has disputed both ''The Daily Beast'' and ''The Washington Post'' assessments, saying their analyses used outdated viewership data. A study by Professor Robert Orttung at George Washington University stated that RT uses human interest stories without ideological content to attract viewers to its channels. Between January and May 2015, the Russian-language channel had the most viewers, with approximately double the number of the main channel, despite only having around one-third the number of subscribers. According to data compiled by Oxford's Rasmus Kleis Nielsen prior to the invasion of Ukraine, RT's "online reach in the U.K., France, and Germany" was "not great on the web, but surprisingly strong on social media, at least in spots". For example, in Germany, RT was "the No. 1 news source in terms of engagements on Facebook" December 2021-January 2022, (according to this CrowdTangle data). Reliable figures for RT's worldwide audience were not available as of 2015. In the United States, RT typically pays cable and satellite services to carry its channel in subscriber packages. In 2011, RT was the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States (after

BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

), and the number one foreign network in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012.'Russia Today' Doubles its U.S. Audience
, Russia Briefing News, 7 June 2012. It also rated well among younger Americans under 35 and in

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

areas. In the UK, the

Broadcasters' Audience Research Board Barb Audiences Ltd (formerly Broadcasters Audience Research Board) is a British organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace two previous systems whereby ITV (T ...

(BARB) has included RT in the viewer data it publishes since 2012. According to their data, approximately 2.5 million Britons watched RT during the third quarter of 2012, making it the third most-watched

rolling news The 24-hour news cycle (or 24/7 news cycle) is the 24-hour investigation and reporting of news, concomitant with fast-paced lifestyles. The vast news resources available in recent decades have increased competition for audience and advertiser a ...

channel in Britain, behind

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

(not including

Sky Sports News Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Group, Sky, a division of Comcast. History Sky Sports first started broadcasting sports news bulletins when it began broadcasting the Premi ...

).Oliver Bulloug
"Inside Russia Today: counterweight to the mainstream media, or Putin's mouthpiece?"
, ''New Statesman'', 10 May 2013.BARB Q3 2012 viewing figure
"BARB Quarterly Reach Report- Quarter 3 2012"
BARB. Retrieved 6 June 2014Laughlin, Andrew, 14 January 201

,

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

. Retrieved 13 December 2013. RT was soon overtaken by

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

,BARB Q4 2012 viewing figure
"BARB Quarterly Reach Report- Quarter 4 2012"
BARB. Retrieved 6 June 2014 and viewing figures dropped to about 2.1 million by the end of 2013.BARB Q4 2013 viewing figure
"BARB Quarterly Reach Report- Quarter 4 2013"
BARB. Retrieved 9 April 2014 For comparison, it had marginally fewer viewers than

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

, the state-funded

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

broadcaster, or minor channels such as Zing, Viva and Rishtey. According to internal documents submitted for Kremlin review, RT's viewership amounted to less than 0.1 percent of Europe's television audience, except in Britain, where 2013 viewership was estimated at 120,000 persons per day. According to the leaked documents, RT was ranked 175th out of 278 channels in Great Britain in May 2013, or fifth out of eight cable news channels. In August 2015, RT's average weekly viewing figure had fallen to around 450,000 (0.8 percent of the total UK audience), 100,000 fewer than in June 2012 and less than half that of Al Jazeera English. In March 2016, the monthly viewing was figure 0.04%. Latin America is the second most significant area of influence for internet RT (rt.com). In 2013, RT ascended to the ranks of the 100 most watched websites in seven Latin American countries. A

Pew Research The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It als ...

survey of the most popular news videos on YouTube in 2011–12 found RT to be the top source with 8.5 percent of posts, 68 percent of which consisted of first-person video accounts of dramatic worldwide events, likely acquired by the network rather than created by it. In 2013, RT became the first television news channel to reach 1 billion views on YouTube. In 2014, its main (English) channel was reported have 1.4 million subscribers.

Followers

In 2013, RT became "the first news network to surpass 1 billion views on YouTube". As of shortly after the invasion of Ukraine and blocking of RT by tech companies, RT's "main Facebook channel has more than 7 million followers" (some of which are located in Europe where the channel is blocked). RT's YouTube account had "roughly 4.65 million followers in English and 5.94 million in Spanish".

Impact

RT has some effect on viewers' political opinions, according to a 2021 study in the journal ''

Security Studies __NOTOC__ Security studies, also known as international security studies, is an academic sub-field within the wider discipline of international relations that studies organized violence, military conflict, national security, and international s ...

''. Viewers exposed to RT became more likely "to support the withdrawal of the United States "from its role as a cooperative global leader" than those who did not watch RT by 10–20%. "This effect is robust across measures, obtains across party lines, and persists even when we disclose that RT is financed by the Russian government." However, exposure to RT had no measurable "effect on Americans' views of domestic politics or the Russian government." According to author

Peter Pomerantsev Peter Pomerantsev (; born Pyotr Igorevich Pomerantsev, ; born 1977) is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the ...

, a large audience rating is not RT's principal goal. Their campaigns are "for financial, political and media influence." RT (and

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, 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 progra ...

) "create the fodder" used by "thousands of fake news propagators" and provide an outlet for material hacked from targets it wishes to harm in the service of Russian (government) interests. RT also serves to make friends with people "useful" to the Russian state, such as

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born 24 December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports tha ...

(retired

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

and dismissed director of the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

and U.S. National Security Advisor in the early days of the

Trump administration Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to: * First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021 * Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025 See also * ...

) who was paid "a reported $40,000 to come to RT's anniversary celebration in Moscow and sit near Mr. Putin."

Programming

In 2008, Heidi Brown wrote in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' that "the Kremlin is using charm, good photography and a healthy dose of sex appeal to appeal to a diverse, skeptical audience. The result is entertaining – and ineffably Russian." She added that Russia Today has managed to "get foreigners to at least consider the Russian viewpoint – however eccentric it may be..." Matt Field in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists described RT as "applying high-quality graphics and production values to its stories", often focusing "on polarizing issues that aren't necessarily top-of-mind for viewers" and sometimes "strikingly at odds with Russian President Vladimir Putin's own views". According to

Tim Dowling Robert Timothy Dowling (; born June 1963) is an American journalist and author who writes a weekly column in ''The Guardian'' about his life with his family in London. Career Dowling worked in data entry for a films database before he became a fr ...

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', "Fringe opinion takes center stage" on RT. "Reporting is routinely bolstered by testimony from experts you have never heard of, representing institutions you have never heard of."

''The Alyona Show''

'' The Alyona Show'', hosted by

Alyona Minkovski Alyona Leonidovna Minkovski (; born 30 January 1986) is a Russian American journalist, television host and commentator. In 2011, she was named on the ''Forbes'' 30 under 30 media list. Minkovski is currently a producer of ''American Metamorp ...

, ran from 2009 to 2012 (when Minkovski left RT to join ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

''). ''Daily Beast'' writer Tracy Quan described ''The Alyona Show'' as "one of RT's most popular vehicles". ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' columnist Jesse Zwick wrote that one journalist told him that Minkovski is "probably the best interviewer on cable news". Benjamin R. Freed wrote in the avant-garde culture magazine ''SOMA'' that "The Alyona Show does political talk with razor-sharp wit."

David Weigel David Weigel (born September 26, 1981) is an American journalist and columnist at the news website Semafor (website), ''Semafor''. Weigel previously covered politics for ''The Washington Post,'' ''Slate (magazine), Slate,'' and ''Bloomberg Poli ...

called the show "an in-house attempt at a newsy cult hit" and noted that "her meatiest segments were about government spying, and the Federal Reserve, and America's undeclared wars". Minkovski had complained about being characterized as if she was "Putin's girl in Washington" or as being "anti-American". After Minkovski argued that

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...

was "not on the side of America. And the fact that my channel is more honest with the American people is something you should be ashamed of", ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

'' writer

Julia Ioffe Julia Ioffe (; ; born October 18, 1982) is a Russian-born American journalist. Her articles have appeared in ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Foreign Policy'', ''Forbes'', ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', ''The Ne ...

asked: "since when does Russia Today defend the policies of any American president? Or the informational needs of the American public, for that matter?"

''Adam vs. the Man''

From April to August 2011, RT ran a half-hour primetime show ''Adam vs. the Man'', hosted by former

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

Marine veteran and high-profile anti-war activist Adam Kokesh. David Weigel writes that Kokesh defended RT's "propaganda" function, saying "We're putting out the truth that no one else wants to say. I mean, if you want to put it in the worst possible abstract, it's the Russian government, which is a competing protection racket against the other governments of the world, going against the United States and calling them on their bullshit."

''World Tomorrow''

Reviewing the first episode of Julian Assange's show ''World Tomorrow'', ''

'' noted that Assange, who was under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

, was "largely deferential" in asking some questions of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who himself was in hiding. However, he also asked tough questions such as why Nasrallah had not supported Arab revolts against Syrian leaders, when he had supported them in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and other countries. ''The New York Times'' journalist Allesandra Stanley wrote that "practically speaking, Mr. Assange is in bed with the Kremlin, but on Tuesday's show he didn't put out" and that he "behaved surprisingly like a standard network interviewer". Douglas Lucas in

wrote that the RT deal "may just be a profitable way for him to get a gigantic retweet".

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. In 1996, Greenwald founded a law firm concentrating on First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment litigation. He began blo ...

wrote that RT presenting the Julian Assange show led to "a predictable wave of snide, smug attacks from American media figures".

Attacks on RT and Assange reveal much about the critics
, ''Salon'', 18 April 2012. Abby Martin RT correspondent

Other shows

Marcin Maczka writes that RT's ample financing has allowed RT to attract experienced journalists and use the latest technology. RT anchors and correspondents tend to concentrate on controversial world issues such as the financial and banking scandals, corporate impact on the global economy, and western demonstrations. It has also aired views by various conspiracy theorists, including

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

white supremacists White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine o ...

, and

Holocaust deniers Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

(presented as "human rights activists"). News from Russia is of secondary importance and such reports emphasize Russian modernisation and economic achievements, as well as Russian culture and natural landscapes, while downplaying Russia's social problems or corruption.

#1917LIVE

In 2017, RT ran a mock live tweeting program under the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

"#1917LIVE" to mark the 100th anniversary of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. The #1917Live project had multimedia social plug-ins, such as Periscope live streaming, as well as virtual reality panoramic videos.

Programs

RT's feature programs include (with presenters parenthesized):

Current

* '' Lumumba's Africa'' * ''Africa Direct'' * ''Moscow Mules'' ( Chay Bowes) * ''Interview'' (various presenters) * ''Going Underground'' (

Afshin Rattansi Afshin Rattansi (born 1968) is a British broadcaster, journalist and author who presents ''Going Underground'' broadcast around the world except in the UK and EU, for Ghaf TV Productions, on networks including the RT network, formerly known a ...

) * ''

CrossTalk In electronics, crosstalk (XT) is a phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on one circuit or channel of a transmission system creates an undesired effect in another circuit or channel. Crosstalk is usually caused by undesired capacitive, ...

'' with Peter Lavelle * ''Worlds Apart with Oksana Boyko'' * ''Inland Visions'' (Sean Thomas)

Former

RT's former on-air staff included 25 people from RT America. * ''On the Touchline with

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

'' * ''Africa Now with Paula Slier'' * ''Starbound'' (Egor Piskunov) * ''Modus Operandi with Manila Chan'' * ''The Cost of Everything'' (Christy Ai) * ''The Whistleblowers'' (John Kiriakou) * ''Perspective with Scottie Nell Hughes'' * ''Let's Talk Bharat with

Anupam Kher Anupam Kher (born 7 March 1955) is an Indian actor, director and producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, he has acted in more than 540 films. A veteran of Indian cinema, Kher is recipient of two Na ...

'' * ''Direct Impact with

Rick Sanchez Rick Sanchez is one of the two Title character, eponymous characters in the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting Rick and Morty (franchise), multimedia franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, he i ...

'' * ''The 360 View with Scottie Nell Hughes'' * ''On Contact'' (

Chris Hedges Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for ''The Christian Science Monit ...

) * ''Renegade Inc.'' ( Ross Ashcroft) * ''

Keiser Report ''The Keiser Report'' was a financial news and analysis show on RT UK and the Russian state RT network, hosted by Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, a married couple. It ran from September 2009 to February 2022, with three new shows every week. He ...

'' (

Max Keiser Timothy Maxwell Keiser (born January 23, 1960) is an American-Salvadoran broadcaster and film maker. He hosted '' Keiser Report'', a financial program broadcast on RT that featured heterodox economics theories. Until November 2012, Keiser ancho ...

with

Stacy Herbert Timothy Maxwell Keiser (born January 23, 1960) is an American-Salvadoran broadcaster and film maker. He hosted ''Keiser Report'', a financial program broadcast on RT (TV network), RT that featured heterodox economics theories. Until November 201 ...

) from RT UK * ''America's Lawyer'' (

Mike Papantonio James Michael Papantonio (born October 24, 1953) is an American torts lawyer, television presenter, radio talk show host and writer. He has been inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. As a trial lawyer, Papantonio co-hosts ''Ring of Fire ...

) * ''Off the grid'' (

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...

) * ''Capital Account'' ( Lauren Lyster) from RT America * ''Why you should care!'' ( Tim Kirby) * ''Breaking the Set'' (

Abby Martin Abigail Suzanne Martin (born September 6, 1984) is an American journalist, TV presenter, and activist. She helped found the citizen journalism website ''Media Roots'' and serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which ...

) * ''In Context'' ( Peter Lavelle) * ''Spotlight'' (

Aleksandr Gurnov Aleksandr Gurnov, full name Aleksandr Borisovich Gurnov, (born 8 July 1957 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian TV persona. He was appointed the bureau chief of the international Russian television network, Russia Today (RT), in London. He has ...

) * ''On the Money'' (Peter Lavelle) * '' World Tomorrow'' (

) * ''Moscow Out'' (

Martyn Andrews Martyn Andrews is a British TV executive producer, television presenter, broadcast journalist, actor and singer. He is currently works at TRT World News in Istanbul. He develops and produces TV formats and documentaries, makes other freelance t ...

) * '' Adam Kokesh'' * '' The Alyona Show'' (

) * '' The Big Picture'' (

Thom Hartmann Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressivism, progressive pundit, political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Progr ...

) from RT America * '' The News with Ed Schultz'' (

Ed Schultz Edward Andrew Schultz (January 27, 1954 – July 5, 2018) was an American television and radio host, Pundit, political commentator, news anchor and sports broadcaster. He was the host of ''The Ed Show'', a weekday news talk program on MSN ...

) * ''

Redacted Tonight Lee Camp (born ) is an American comedian, writer, podcaster, news journalist and news commentator. As a television host, he presented the show ''Redacted Tonight'' for several years on the Russian state-funded network RT America until it was shut ...

'' ( Lee Camp) from RT America * ''How to Watch the News with

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distin ...

'' * ''

'' (

) * ''

News Thing ''Sam Delaney's News Thing'' was a television programme produced by RT UK and presented by British journalist and broadcaster Sam Delaney, that aired every Saturday night from November 2015 until June 2018. Notable guest appearances included ...

'' (

Sam Delaney Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional c ...

) * '' Watching the Hawks'' ( Tyrel Ventura,

Sean Stone Sean Christopher Stone (December 29, 1984) is an American actor, filmmaker, and television host. Stone hosted a show on the Russian state-funded network RT America until the network was shut down in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bi ...

, and Tabetha Wallace) * '' SophieCo'' (

Sophie Shevardnadze Sophie (Sophiko) Paatovna Shevardnadze (Russian: София (Софико) Паатовна Шеварднадзе; Georgian: სოფო შევარდნაძე; born 23 September 1978) is a Georgian/Russian journalist, presenter, auth ...

) * ''

'' (

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. He has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member ...

) from RT UK * '' Politicking'' (Larry King) * ''News Views Hughes'' * ''On the Touchline with

'' * ''In Question'' * ''Raw Take'' * '' Interdit d'interdire'' (

Frédéric Taddeï Frédéric Taddeï (born 5 January 1961) is a French journalist and television and radio host. Taddeï grew up in Boulogne-Billancourt, a Parisian suburb. From 1997 to 2006, he hosted the late night programme ''Paris Dernière'' broadcast on th ...

, resigned) from RT France

On-air staff

RT's current on-air staff includes 25 people from RT News, and eight from RT UK. Notable members of RT's current and former staff include: ;Current ;News Presenters *

Eunan O'Neill Eunan O'Neill (born Newry, County Down, 12 August 1982) is a Northern Irish television presenter. O'Neill, who grew up in Crossmaglen in County Armagh, holds a postgraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Sheffield. Since ...

;Correspondents * Paula Slier – Middle East bureau ;Other presenters *

– RT UK bureau ;Business presenters *

;Documentary presenters * James Brown – ''Discovering Russia'' (formerly news presenter and host of ''Close-Up Russia'') ;Former *

– host of '' World Tomorrow'' * Jason de la Peña *

Dmitry Glukhovsky Dmitry Alekseyevich Glukhovsky (, born 12 June 1979) is a Russian author, best known for the science fiction novel '' Metro 2033'' and its sequels. As a journalist, Dmitry Glukhovsky has worked for Euronews, RT in its early years, and others. ...

* Adam Kokesh – host of ''Adam vs. the Man'' *

Kevin Owen Kevin Owen (born 1966) is a British television and radio news anchor, reporter and presenter who was born in Plymouth, UK. He has worked in UK regional and network broadcasting for more than three decades. From 2006 to 2022, he worked at the Ru ...

– host of '' The Alyona Show'' * Karen Roberts *

– RT America * Liz Wahl – Washington, D.C. bureau Vladimir Putin - Visit to Russia Today television channel 9

Guests

According to Jesse Zwick, RT persuades "legitimate experts and journalists" to appear as guests by allowing them to speak at length on issues ignored by larger news outlets. It frequently interviews progressive and

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

academics, intellectuals and writers from organisations like ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

'',

Human Events ''Human Events'' is an American conservative political news and analysis website. Founded in 1944 as a print newspaper, ''Human Events'' became a digital-only publication in 2013. ''Human Events'' takes its name from the first sentence of the U ...

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

and the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

who are critical of United States foreign and civil liberties policies. Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

, the leftist critic of Western policies are "favorites". RT also features little-known commentators including anarchists, anti-globalists and left-wing activists. Journalist

holds that a primary reason for RT's success in the United States is that RT is "a force for diversity" which gives voice to people "who rarely get heard in current mainstream US media". Examples of this include "a twelve-minute interview" in March 2010 "with Hank Albarelli, a self-described American 'historian' who claims that the CIA is testing dangerous drugs on unwitting civilians", and RT's asking for commentary on the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

from "Carl Dix, a representative of the American Revolutionary Communist Party". In 2010, journalist and blogger Julia Ioffe described RT as being "provocative just for the sake of being provocative" in its choice of guests and issue topics, featuring a Russian historian who predicted that the United States would soon be dissolved, showing speeches by Venezuelan President

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

, reporting on

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

in America, and interviewing the chairman of the New Black Panther Party. She wrote that in attempting to offer "an alternate point of view, it is forced to talk to marginal, offensive, and often irrelevant figures". A 2010

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

report stated that RT extensively covered the "

birther During Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008, throughout his presidency and afterwards, there was extensive news coverage of Obama's religious preference, birthplace, and of the individuals questioning his religious belief and citiz ...

" and the " New World Order" conspiracy theories and interviewed militia organizer Jim Stachowiak and

white nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara ...

Jared Taylor Samuel Jared Taylor (born September 15, 1951) is an American white supremacist and editor of ''American Renaissance'', an online magazine espousing such opinions, which was founded by Taylor in 1990. He is also the president of ''American Re ...

. An

article stated that RT has a penchant "for off-beat stories and conspiracy theories". RT Editor-in-Chief

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (born 6 April 1980) is a Russian media executive. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

'' that RT started to grow once it became provocative and that controversy was vital to the channel. She said that RT's task was not to polish Moscow's reputation. The news channel has also been criticized for its lack of objectivity in its coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Miko Peled, the Israeli peace activist who has called the peace process "a process of apartheid & colonization" is a frequent guest on RT. Secretary Alan Peter S

Notable guests have included

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

intellectuals like

Jared Bernstein Jared Bernstein (born December 26, 1955) is an American government official who was the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was ...

John Feffer John Feffer (born 1963) is an author and currently director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is a fellow at the Open Society Foundations. His books include ''Crusade 2.0'' (City Lights, 2012), a description of con ...

and

Lawrence Korb Lawrence J. Korb (born July 9, 1939, in New York City) is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. He was formerly director of national security studies at the Council on For ...

; journalists and writers

Jacob Sullum Jacob Z. Sullum (born September 5, 1965) is a syndicated newspaper columnist with Creators Syndicate and a senior editor at ''Reason'' magazine. He focuses most of his writings on shrinking the realm of politics and expanding individual choice. He ...

, Pepe Escobar, and Brian Doherty, and heads of state, including Ecuador's

Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Corr ...

, and Syria's

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage ( ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton (UK Parliament constituency), Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 20 ...

, the leader of

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

from 2010 to 2016, appeared on RT eighteen times from 2010 to 2014.

Steve Bannon Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of president Donald Trump's first ...

has stated that he has appeared on RT "probably 100 times or more". Manuel Ochsenreiter, a

, has repeatedly appeared on RT to represent the German point of view. RT News has also frequently hosted Richard B. Spencer, an American

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

airing his opinions in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and has hosted

Holocaust denier Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...

Ryan Dawson, presenting him as a

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

. Such figures as

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

Jim Marrs James Farrell Marrs Jr. (December 5, 1943 – August 2, 2017) was an American newspaper journalist and ''New York Times'' best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover-ups and conspiracies. Marrs was a prominent ...

David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspiracy nut ...

, and

Webster Tarpley Webster Griffin Tarpley (born September 1946) is an American writer, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. A one-time follower of Lyndon LaRouche, Tarpley is known for his role in the 9/11 truth movement, believing 9/11 was a false flag o ...

have appeared on RT to advance conspiracy theories about topics such as the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, the

Bilderberg group The Bilderberg Meeting (also known as the "Bilderberg Group", "Bilderberg Conference" or "Bilderberg Club") is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally ...

, and the "New World Order".

Content

RT has presented itself as a global network "like the BBC or France 24", differing from them in offering "alternative views" ignored by the "Western-dominated news media". Many Western countries, in contrast, regard RT not just as a propaganda organ, but as "the slickly produced heart of a broad, often covert disinformation campaign designed to sow doubt about democratic institutions and destabilize the West". According to Steven Erlanger, RT provides "hard news and top-notch graphics" and a "mix with interviews from all sorts of people: well known and obscure, left and right. if there is any unifying character to RT, it is a deep skepticism of Western and American narratives of the world and a fundamental defensiveness about Russia and Mr. Putin." RT formerly hosted the leaders of populist European parties such as UKIP's leader Nigel Farage and Marie Le Pen, leader of the French Populist National Rally Party. British politician, broadcaster, and writer George Galloway formerly hosted his own TV news programme on RT named "Sputnik: Orbiting the World with George Galloway".

Propaganda and related issues

RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, has described RT as giving Russia "

soft power In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-option, co-opt rather than coerce (in contrast with hard power). It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is ...

", and being the same kind of "tool" for Russia that the "BBC or

" are "for the UK and USA". In 2012, she stated that RT waged "an information war ... with the entire Western world" during the

. Observers have criticized the state-supported/controlled nature of RT as an instrument of propaganda. In 2005, Pascal Bonnamour, the head of the European department of

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

, called the newly announced network "another step of the state to control information". In a 2005 interview with U.S. government-owned external broadcaster Voice of America, Russian-Israeli blogger Anton Nosik said the creation of RT "smacks of Soviet-style propaganda campaigns". In 2009,

Luke Harding Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for ''The Guardian''. He is known for his coverage of Russia under Vladimir Putin, WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. He was based in Russia for ''Th ...

(then Moscow correspondent for ''The Guardian'') described RT's advertising campaign in the United Kingdom as an "ambitious attempt to create a new post-Soviet global propaganda empire". In Russia, Andrey Illarionov, former advisor to Vladimir Putin, has called the channel "the best Russian propaganda machine targeted at the outside world". Chess grandmaster

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

, speaking after the launch of RT America, said: "Russia Today is an extension of the methods and approach of the state-controlled media inside Russia, applied in a bid to influence the American cable audience". Others have commended its promotion and discussion of issues ignored or just not given enough time by the mainstream news media. In ''

E-International Relations E-International Relations (E-IR) is an open-access website covering international relations and international politics. It provides an academic perspective on global events. Its editor-in-chief is Stephen McGlinchey. The website has published si ...

'', researcher Precious N Chatterje-Doody stated that RT viewers tend to recognize RT's state-controlled status, and that they choose to watch RT for its "non-mainstream" story selection and its use of technology. She asserted that if RT broadcast only "blatant propaganda", it would not retain its audience. According to Adam Johnson in ''The Nation'' magazine, "while Russia Today toes the Kremlin's line on foreign policy, it also provides an outlet to marginalized issues and voices stateside. RT, for example, has covered the recent prison strikes—the largest in American history—twice. So far CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and Rutenberg's employer, ''The New York Times'', haven't covered them at all. RT aggressively covered Occupy Wall Street early on while the rest of corporate US media were marginalizing from afar (for this effort, RT was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

)." John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus says he appears on RT as well as the U.S.-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, commented "I've been given the opportunity to talk about military expenditures in a way I haven't been given in U.S. outlets". On the fairness issue, he said: "You're going to find blind spots in the coverage for any news organization". Among the complaints of RT are the quality of its journalism and general production of "propaganda and disinformation". Graduate students at

Columbia School of Journalism Columbia most often refers to: * Columbia (personification), the historical personification of the United States * Columbia University, a private university in New York City * Columbia Pictures, an American film studio owned by Sony Pictures * ...

monitored RT's (US) output for much of 2015, and found "RT ignores the inherent traits of journalism—checking sources, relaying facts, attempting honest reportage" and "you'll find 'experts' lacking in expertise, conspiracy theories without backing, and, from time to time, outright fabrication for the sake of pushing a pro-Kremlin line", according to Casey Michel, who worked on the project. The results were compiled in a

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

blog. Media analyst Vasily Gatov wrote in a 2014 ''

Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

'' article that sharp ethical and reporting skills are not required for Russian media employees, including RT. RT has been

deprecated Deprecation is the discouragement of use of something human-made, such as a term, feature, design, or practice. Typically something is deprecated because it is claimed to be inferior compared to other options available. Something may be deprec ...

by the

Wikipedia community The Wikipedia community, collectively and individually known as Wikipedians, is an online community of volunteers who create and maintain Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. Wikipedians may or may not consider themselves part of the Wikimedia mo ...

as an unreliable source of information, with consensus being that it is "a mouthpiece of the Russian government that engages in propaganda and disinformation." In a 2022 research paper comparing RT and

CGTN China Global Television Network (CGTN) is one of three branches of state-run China Media Group and the international division of China Central Television (CCTV). Headquartered in Beijing, CGTN broadcasts news in multiple languages. CGTN is un ...

's coverage of the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

, Martin Moore and Thomas Colley of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

conceptualized RT as operating using a "partisan parasite" propaganda model, noting that it "often covers topics and people that would mainly be familiar to US audiences, but which are of little international salience or relevance", and that it rarely covers Russia except through the lens of U.S. politics. They also noted: "Its content selection, partisan framing and vernacular style is similar to right-wing US outlets like

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

Newsmax Newsmax, Inc. (or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American cable news, political opinion commentary, and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy in 1998. It has been variously described as conservative, right-wing, an ...

and One America News Network." RT has been accused of different approaches to disinformation: * Focusing on "presenting a negative picture of the United States and 'the West'", rather than extolling "Russia's virtues directly", publishing conspiracy theories about the West, criticizing U.S. influence abroad, and presenting Russia as "a 'global underdog'" to U.S. hegemony. (Michael Dukalskis in his 2021 book on tactics used by authoritarian regimes to construct a positive image of their regimes). * Normally giving reporters and presenters considerable latitude, and saving straight-up pro-Russian government "message control" (propaganda), for "highly sensitive issues", such as the

or the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, (Julia Ioffe). * Functioning in some circumstances, (like the 2016 U.S. presidential election), as a part of a larger Russian disinformation apparatus with the goal of undermining "public faith in the U.S. democratic process," and damaging enemies (like Hillary Clinton). RT and other state-funded Russian media, publicize "real information, some open and some hacked" (i.e. stolen), along with "false reports" they've created. These are "amplified on social media, sometimes by computer bots that send out thousands of Facebook and Twitter messages." (Steven Erlanger, quoting U.S. agencies). * Only rarely taking a "single, anti-Western media line on any given story", which would be "too obvious". Instead, presenting "gaggles of competing and contradicting narratives which together create the impression that the truth is indecipherable". (Lithuania's STRATCOM Colonel). RT's "main message is that you cannot trust the western media". It seems "dedicated to the proposition that after the notion of objectivity has evaporated, all stories are equally true." (Peter Pomerantsev, writing in ''The Guardian'' in 2015) Using a strategy of distributing fake stories in "high-volume and multichannel, rapid, continuous, and repetitive" manner, with no regard to consistency. This "

firehose of falsehood The firehose of falsehood, also known as firehosing, is a propaganda technique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (like news and social media) without regard for truth ...

" makes propaganda difficult to counter. (Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews of

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

). Though viewers may still oppose Russian policy and dislike Putin, RT's goal is for "a bit" of disinformation mud to "stick" to viewers and their doubts about Western institutions to grow. (Robert Pszczel, who ran NATO's information office in Moscow and watches Russia and the western Balkans for NATO.) * Pushing different themes in different countries, which are often contradictory but all serve the Russian government's interests: ** presenting itself as a liberal alternative in the United States, but as the flagship of resurgent

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

parties in Europe. (Patrick Hilsman) ** warning domestic Russian audiences of the dangers of COVID-19 and the need for preventive measures, while saturating English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic-language platforms with

COVID-19 misinformation False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messagi ...

and conspiracy theories. ** RT (and other Russian propaganda media) may broadcast different "themes or messages", different accounts of "contested events", and may change their account (their "falsehood or misrepresentation") if it is "exposed or ... not well received", moving "on to a new (though not necessarily more plausible) explanation". An example being Russian media explanations for killing of 283 passengers and 15 crew from the downing of

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile system, Bu ...

on 17 July 2014 while the plane was flying over pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. The

Dutch Safety Board The Dutch Safety Board (DSB; , OVV, literally "Investigation Council for Safety") is the official body that investigates a wide variety of safety matters in the Netherlands. It is based in The Hague.joint investigation team Joint Investigation Teams (JIT) are law enforcement and judicial teams set up jointly by national investigative agencies of European Union (EU) member states to handle cross-border crime. Joint investigation teams coordinate the investigations and p ...

(JIT), concluded that the airliner was downed by a Russian Buk

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

launched from the separatist-controlled territory, and American, German, Dutch and Australia investigations held Russia responsible. Russian media ( LifeNews) first reported separatists had shot down a "Ukrainian Air Force

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

transport plane" with a missile, calling it "a new victory for the Donetsk militia". Later, after it was clear the plane was civilian, offering a variety of theories of how the Ukrainian military was responsible. One theory offered and later discarded by RT was that the airliner may have been shot down by Ukraine in a failed attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, in a plot which was organised by Ukraine's "Western backers". (However Putin's flight route was hundreds of kilometres north of Ukraine.)

Disinformation and conspiracy theories

Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of

and

. In 2010, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' magazine observed that RT's programming, while sometimes interesting and unobjectionable, and sometimes "hard-edged", also presents "wild conspiracy theories" that can be regarded as "kooky". A 2013 article in ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' said that RT "uses a chaotic mixture of conspiracy theories and crude propaganda", pointing to a program that "mutated" the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing, sometimes referred to as simply the Boston bombing, was an Islamist domestic terrorist attack that took place during the 117th annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarna ...

into a U.S. government conspiracy. The launch of

was the subject of much comment in the British press in late 2014. In ''The Observer'', Nick Cohen accused the channel of consciously spreading conspiracy theories and of being a "prostitution of journalism". Oliver Kamm, a columnist for ''The Times'', called on British broadcasting regulator

to act against this "den of deceivers". Journalists at ''

'' and ''

'' have observed that RT employs Tony Gosling, an exponent of long-discredited conspiracy theories concerning the alleged control of the world by Illuminati and the Czarist Antisemitism, antisemitic forgery ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''. RT has broadcast stories about microchips being implanted into office workers in the EU to make them more "submissive"; about the "majority" of Europeans supporting Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Russian annexation of Crimea; the EU preparing "a form of genocide" against Russians; in Germany it Criminal case of Lisa F., falsely reported about a kidnapping of a Russian girl; that "NATO planned to store nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe"; that Hillary Clinton fell ill; it has also on many occasions misrepresented or invented statements from European leaders. In 2017, RT started its own fact-checking project, FakeCheck, in response to accusations of spreading fake news. The Poynter Institute conducted a content analysis of FakeCheck and concluded it "mixes some legitimate debunks with other scantily sourced or dubiously framed 'fact checks.'" Ben Nimmo of the

's Digital Forensic Research Lab found that four out of nine articles published in its first two weeks contained "inaccuracies and possible bias with irrelevant or insufficient evidence." From the time of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, 2014 pro-Russia unrest in Ukraine RT has repeatedly been exposed for producing fake news. In 2017, the channel was involved in a fake news scandal about a 'Putin burger' it claimed was on the menu in a New York diner, to celebrate the birthday of the Russian president

. The 'Putin burger' story was quickly exposed as a fabrication, and RT removed it from their site. When caught publishing false information, RT has frequently deleted the material from their site and made no further comment. In 2022, the Centre for Democratic Integrity (CDI) published a comprehensive report "RT in Europe and beyond" which in detail describes disinformation and divisive activities of RT against European audience with focus on regional editions (French, Spanish, German, British), documenting specific disinformation campaigns. In 2022, Martin Moore and Thomas Colley of

noted that RT's coverage of the

was anti-Joe Biden and pro-Trump, with RT promoting the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign, Trump campaign's unfounded claims that Biden was the head of a "crime family", as well as allegations that Biden's son Hunter Biden, Hunter Hunter Biden laptop controversy, made corrupt business deals in Ukraine and China and possessed pictures of underage girls. RT also questioned Joe Biden's fitness for office and promoted unfounded rumors that he could only debate effectively with the use of headpieces and/or performance-enhancing drugs. Following the election, RT uncritically promoted Trump's Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, unfounded claims of electoral fraud, and Moore and Colley noted that in its coverage of the electoral process, RT claimed that the process was "dysfunctional, fraudulent or futile".

Treatment of Putin and Medvedev

A 2007 article in ''The Christian Science Monitor'' stated that RT reported on the good job Putin was doing in the world and next to nothing on things like the conflict in Chechnya or the murder of government critics. According to a 2010 report by ''The Independent'', RT journalists have said that coverage of sensitive issues in Russia is allowed, but direct criticism of Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev was not. Masha Karp wrote in ''Standpoint (magazine), Standpoint'' magazine that contemporary Russian issues "such as the suppression of free speech and peaceful demonstrations, or the economic inefficiency and corrupt judiciary, are either ignored or their significance played down". In 2008, Stephen Heyman wrote in ''The New York Times'' that in RT's Russia, "corruption is not quite a scourge but a symptom of a developing economy".

Anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism

'' writer James Kirchick accused the network of "often virulent anti-Americanism, worshipful portrayal of Russian leaders". Edward Lucas (journalist), Edward Lucas wrote in ''

'' (quoted in

) that the core of RT was "anti-Westernism". Julia Ioffe wrote: "Often, it seemed that Russia Today was just a way to stick it to the U.S. from behind the façade of legitimate newsgathering." Shaun Walker wrote in ''

'' that RT "has made a name for itself as a strident critic of US policy". Alessandra Stanley wrote in ''The New York Times'' that RT is "like the Voice of America, only with more money and a zesty anti-American slant".

writes that RT goes further than merely creating distrust of the United States government, to saying, in effect: "You can trust the Russians more than you can trust those bastards." Russian studies professor Stephen F. Cohen stated in 2012 that RT does a lot of stories that "reflect badly" on the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and much of Western Europe and that they are "particularly aggrieved by American sermonizing abroad". Citing that RT compares stories about Russia allowing mass protests of the 2011–2012 Russian protests, 2011–2012 Russian election protests with those of U.S. authorities nationwide arresting members of the Occupy movement. Cohen states that despite the pro-Kremlin slant, "any intelligent viewer can sort this out. I doubt that many idiots find their way to RT".. RT America has described journalists as "Russiagate conspiracy theorists" for covering Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Russian journalist, former press secretary of the head of the UN Mission in South Africa, Yuri Sigov, wrote that when covering Canada, Russia Today presents information selectively. This is almost always negative information aimed at fulfilling political orders.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

RT, particularly the former RT presenter

, has been accused of being anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian by ''The Algemeiner'' and Israel National News. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman made a complaint to Putin at their official meeting in 2012.

Climate change denial

In November 2021, a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate described RT as being among "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change. Facebook disputed the study's methodology.

COVID-19 misinformation

Compared to RT's coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic for its viewers in Russia, RT's coverage of the pandemic for its international viewers was saturated with

and conspiracy theories. RT urged domestic Russian audiences to vaccinate and wear Face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, masks to prevent COVID-19, while advocating against virus-prevention measures on its English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic-language platforms.

Responses

States

– Sanctions against Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of Russia's state-controlled

and RT television presenter, have been in place since the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 2014 invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. The Council of the European Union, EU Council cites Kiselyov to be a "central figure of the government propaganda supporting the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine". Initially, Russian state-owned media outlets were not banned and continued to be available in the EU, with the exception of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE) described RT as "actively engaging in disinformation activities" and highlighted that RT and

are pushing local broadcasters in Europe off from the market thanks to massive funding from Russian Federation. Editor-in-chief

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (born 6 April 1980) is a Russian media executive. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, – Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher (politician), Paul Fletcher requested the partially Australian government funded public service broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service, SBS suspend broadcasts of RT and NTV (Russia), NTV news programming on its World Watch platform. Fletcher stated, "Given the current actions of the Russian government , and the lack of genuinely independent Russian media, this is a responsible decision." SBS suspended the aforementioned broadcasts on 25 February 2022. The RT channel was removed from Australian pay TV provider

's listings the next day due to concerns about the situation in Ukraine. – On 16 March 2022, the

banned RT and RT France from broadcasting in Canada. – After failing to obtain a broadcast license compliant with the ,

was banned in Germany by the (ZAK) on 2 February 2022. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with "retaliatory measures" to remove German broadcaster Deutsche Welle from Russia. – Chief Minister Fabian Picardo requested a nationwide ban of RT on 25 February 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, describing RT as "a dangerous source of disinformation that Gibraltar cannot accept on its networks". Television providers in Gibraltar agreed to suspend broadcasts of RT. – At the end of June 2020, after new amendments to the Law on Electronic Media were made, seven RT channels were banned in Latvia for being under the control of Dmitry Kiselyov who had been sanctioned by the European Union since 2014. Chairperson of the National Electronic Mass Media Council Ivars Āboliņš said they will be asking all EU state regulators to follow their example and restrict RT in their territory. Kiselyov called the decision "an indicator of the level of stupidity and ignorance of the Latvian authorities, blinded by Russophobia". – Linas Antanas Linkevičius, Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, posted on Twitter on 9 March 2014 amid the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, "Russia Today propaganda machine is no less destructive than military marching in Crimea". It was banned by the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania on 8 July 2020. The decision of both Latvian and Lithuanian authorities was criticised by

as "misuse of the EU sanctions policy". – The Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji, National Broadcasting Council banned RT in Poland on 24 February 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. – RT has been banned in Ukraine by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ukraine), Ministry of Internal Affairs since August 2014, following the Russo-Ukrainian War, invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory. – On 18 March 2022, ANO TV Novosti's broadcasting license was revoked by

, effectively banning RT from being broadcast. This was taken in the wake of RT UK being funded by the Russian government, which, when combined with their promotion of Russian state narratives with regard to sanctions and its invasion of Ukraine, was deemed a violation of neutrality standards. This came after an investigation was launched on 2 March 2022 in these matters, also involving the invasion. – In September 2017, the United States Department of Justice, US Department of Justice compelled RT to file paperwork under the

in the United States. Previously, the United States Secretary of State John Kerry had referred to RT as a state-sponsored "propaganda bullhorn" and he continued by saying, " network has deployed to promote president Putin's fantasy about what is playing out on the ground. They almost spend full-time devoted to this effort, to propagandize, and to distort what is happening or not happening in Ukraine." RT responded that they wanted "an official response from the U.S. Department of State substantiating Mr. Kerry's claims". Richard Stengel from the U.S. Department of State responded. Stengel stated in his response, "RT is a distortion machine, not a news organization", concluding that "the network and its editors should not pretend that RT is anything other than another player in Russia's global disinformation campaign against the people of Ukraine and their supporters". However, Stengel supports RT's right to broadcast in the United States.

Political involvement

In April 2017, during his successful run for President of France, Emmanuel Macron's 2017 French presidential election, campaign team banned both RT and the Sputnik (news agency), Sputnik news agency from campaign events. A Macron spokesperson said the two outlets showed a "systematic desire to issue fake news and false information". Macron later said during a press conference that RT and Sputnik were "agencies of influence and propaganda, lying propaganda—no more, no less". RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan characterized Macron's remarks on RT as an attack on freedom of speech. In October 2017, Twitter banned both RT and Sputnik from advertising on their social networking service amid accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, sparking an angry response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian foreign ministry. Twitter in August 2020 began to identify RT, along with other Russian and Chinese media outlets, as "state-affiliated media" in a prominent place at the top of their accounts on the social media platform. In November 2017, Alphabet Inc., Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt announced that Google will be "deranking" stories from RT and Sputnik in response to allegations about election meddling by President Putin's government, provoking an accusation of censorship from both outlets. In March 2018, John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor of the Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party, advised fellow Labour MPs to boycott RT and said he would no longer appear on the channel. He said: "We tried to be fair with them and as long as they abide by journalistic standards that are objective that's fine but it looks as if they have gone beyond that line". A party representative said: "We are keeping the issue under review". In July 2019, the UK Foreign Office banned both RT and Sputnik from attending the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London for "their active role in spreading disinformation". The Russian Embassy called the decision "direct politically motivated discrimination", while RT responded in a statement: "It takes a particular brand of hypocrisy to advocate for freedom of press while banning inconvenient voices and slandering alternative media."

Other responses

2008–2012

During the 2008 South Ossetia War, RT correspondent William Dunbar resigned after the network refused to let him report on Russian airstrikes of civilian targets, stating, "any issue where there is a Kremlin line, RT is sure to toe it". According to ''Variety (magazine), Variety'', sources at RT confirmed that Dunbar had resigned, saying that it was not over bias. One senior RT journalist told the magazine, "the Russian coverage I have seen has been much better than much of the Western coverage... Russian news coverage is largely pro-Russia, but that is to be expected." Shaun Walker, the Moscow correspondent for ''

'', said that RT had "instructed reporters not to report from Georgian villages within

that had been ethnic cleansing, ethnically cleansed". Julia Ioffe wrote that an RT journalist whose reporting deviated from "the Kremlin line that Georgians were slaughtering unarmed Ossetians" was reprimanded. Human Rights Watch said that RT's claim of 2,000 South Ossetian casualties was exaggerated. RT covering protests in Moscow on 1012

In 2012, Jesse Zwick of ''

'' criticized RT, stating it held that "civilian casualties in Syria are minimal, foreign intervention would be disastrous, and any humanitarian appeals from Western nations are a thin veil for a NATO-backed move to isolate Iran, China, and Russia". He wrote that RT wants to "make the United States look out of line for lecturing Russia". Zwick also wrote that RT provided a "disproportionate amount of time" to covering

Republican Ron Paul during Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2012, his 2012 presidential campaign. Writing after her 2014 on-air resignation, Liz Wahl suggested the reason for this "wasn't his message of freedom and liberty but his non-interventionist stance and consistent criticism of U.S. foreign policy. His message fit RT's narrative that the United States is a huge bully." In a June 2011 broadcast of ''Adam vs. the Man'', host Adam Kokesh endorsed fundraising for Paul, leading to a complaint to the Federal Election Commission charging a political contribution had been made by a foreign corporation. Kokesh said his cancellation in August was related to Paul's aide Jesse Benton rather than the complaint. In September 2012, UK broadcast regulator

found that two Libyan dispatches broadcast by RT's Lizzie Phelan in a year earlier were in breach of its code on accuracy and impartiality. The following November, RT was again found in breach of impartiality rules in relation to its coverage of the Syrian conflict. An August 2013 story concerning unverified reports of the killing of 450 Kurds, Kurdish civilians near the Turkey-Syria border was also found to have breached Ofcom's rules. That December, Ofcom found RT in breach of its standards in relation to the impartiality of a documentary entitled "Syrian Diary" broadcast the previous March. Speaking in 2014 former RT reporter Sara Firth said that there had previously been examples of senior editorial interference, and that she had been pulled out of Syria after some "very heated discussions" about the channel's coverage.

2014

On 4 March 2014, ''Breaking The Set'' host Abby Martin (journalist), Abby Martin, speaking directly to her viewing audience during the show's closing statement, said that even though she works for RT, she is against Russia's intervention in Ukraine. She said that "what Russia did is wrong", as she is against intervention by any nation into other countries' affairs. Later, Martin asserted that RT still supports her despite her differences of opinion with the Russian government. RTs press office suggested that Martin would be sent to Crimea and responded to accusations of propaganda, stating "the charges of propaganda tend to pop up every time a news outlet, particularly RT, dares to show the side of events that does not fit the mainstream narrative, regardless of the realities on the ground. This happened in Information war during the Russo-Georgian war, Georgia, this is happening in 2014 Crimean crisis, Ukraine".

said that American media elites love to mock Russian media, especially RT, as being a source of shameless pro-Putin propaganda, where free expression is strictly barred. Agreeing the "network has a strong pro-Russian bias", he suggested that Martin's action "remarkably demonstrated what 'journalistic independence' means". On 5 March 2014, RT Washington, D.C. bureau anchor Liz Wahl resigned on air, blaming RT for propaganda. Wahl stated that what "broke" her was that RT censored a question from her interview with Ron Paul about "Russia's ''intervention'' in Ukraine". In response, RT released a statement: "When a journalist disagrees with the editorial position of his or her organization, the usual course of action is to address those grievances with the editor, and, if they cannot be resolved, to quit like a professional. But when someone makes a big public show of a personal decision, it is nothing more than a self-promotional stunt. We wish Liz the best of luck on her chosen path". In a March 2014 ''Politico'' article, Wahl stated: "For about two and a half years. I'd looked the other way as the network smeared America for the sake of making the Kremlin look better by comparison, while it sugarcoated atrocities by one brutal dictator after another." Liz Wahl on RT America

When asked about a clip of her interviewing a guest on RT by Brian Stelter, host of CNN's ''Reliable Sources'', Wahl responded, ''The New York Times'' op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof commented on CNN's ''Piers Morgan Live'' about Wahl's and Martin's initial actions, saying that he "admire[s] their outspokenness but, you know, at the end of the day, RT is a Russian propaganda arm, and I don't think it's going to matter very much to the geopolitical consequences here". Former RT Moscow anchor Staci Bivens, and other former RT journalists speaking under anonymity according to BuzzFeed, said they regretted working for the network, citing their dislike of the network's use of propaganda. Bivens, for example, was explicitly asked to go to Germany and procure a story proving that "Germany is a failed state". When she refused, other reporters were sent instead. Steve Bloomfield, the foreign editor of ''Monocle (lifestyle magazine), Monocle'' wrote that RT's "coverage of Ukraine could not have been kinder to Moscow if Vladimir Putin had chosen the running order himself. While Putin kept up the pretence that there were no Russian troops in Crimea, so too did RT. The storming of government buildings across eastern Ukraine has been portrayed as the understandable actions of peace-loving protesters who fear "chaos" in Kiev". After the July 2014 crash of

, RT rushed to blame others for the plane's shoot-down in Ukraine amid accusations by Ukrainian fighters of Russian involvement in the crash. Speaking of RT's coverage, Sarah Oates, professor of journalism at the University of Maryland said: "But if you're going to engage in propaganda, you have to do it well. They have completely embarrassed themselves." Sara Firth, a London-based correspondent with RT resigned in protest over the network's coverage of the MH17 disaster. Shortly before resigning, she tweeted, "RT style guide Rule 1: It is ALWAYS * Ukraine's fault (* add name as applicable)". She told ''The Guardian'': "I walked into the newsroom and there was an eyewitness account making allegations [against Ukraine] and analysis, if you can call it, from our correspondent in the studio. It was just appalling, in a situation like that where there are families waiting to be informed and a devastating loss of life." She also noted that "There is bias against Russia but you don't counter wrong by doing even more wrong" and stated "I have always said it's better to have RT than to not have that perspective, but actually with a story like this and the way they misreport it, it's quite dangerous, I don't want to be party to it." In follow-up interview she said: "In Ukraine, you're taking a very small part of a much wider story, totally omitted the context of the story, and so what you wind up with on air is outright misinformation." Calling RT "mass information manipulation", Firth said: "they have a very clear idea in their mind of what they're trying to prove". She also stated that "The worst-kept secret is that RT is blatant propaganda. I'm one in a very long line of people who have left for the same reason." The following November, RT was again found in breach of Ofcom's impartiality rules, this time in relation to its coverage of the Ukraine crisis, specifically events leading up to the annexation by Russia of Crimea. For repeated breaches of its ''due impartiality'' rules, Ofcom put RT management "on notice that any future breaches of the due impartiality rules may result in further regulatory action, including consideration of a Sanctions (law), statutory sanction".

2015–2016

In January 2015, Ofcom found RT (and the BBC) not in breach of rules on generally accepted standards following a complaint about the use of graphic imagery of bodies at the MH17 crash site. Following the March 2015 European Council summit which concluded that action was needed to "challenge Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns", the European External Action Service was tasked to respond. European Parliament briefing notes on the situation called RT "Russia's main international media weapon". The counter-propaganda strategy subsequently developed by the EastStratCom Task Force, a small group of eight officials, included launching the ''EU vs Disinformation'' website with a headline of "don't be deceived, question even more". In September 2015, Ofcom found RT in breach of the impartiality rules in its coverage of the events in Ukraine and Syria. It also upheld the complaint by the

that allegations made in an episode of ''The Truthseeker'' that a BBC ''Panorama (TV series), Panorama'' film, ''Saving Syria's Children'', had faked a parts of a report on a chemical weapon attack in Syria were "materially misleading". In an episode of ''The Truthseeker'', named ''Genocide of Eastern Ukraine'', they stated that the Ukrainian government was deliberately bombing civilians and had murdered and tortured journalists, as well as Crucified Boy, crucifying babies. Ukrainian army forces were accused of "ethnic cleansing" and were compared to the Nazis in World War Two. The only response to the allegations in the broadcast was in the form of a caption saying "Kiev claims it is not committing genocide, denies casualty reports", which appeared on screen for six seconds. According to Ofcom the broadcast had "little or no counterbalance or objectivity". A spokesperson for the media regulator said: "Ofcom found that RT broadcast content that was either materially misleading or not duly impartial. These are significant failings and we are therefore requiring RT to broadcast two clear statements on our decision which correct these failures." In October 2015, David J. Kramer, senior director for human rights and democracy at the McCain Institute for International Leadership, suggested that Western countries freeze RT's assets "not because of the odious things it spews" but as part of the Yukos shareholders vs. Russia, Yukos shareholder case. A report released by the US think-tank the

in 2016 called RT part of "a wider Russian propaganda operation" named the "Firehose of Falsehood". The paper called "Russian faux-news propaganda channels, such as RT" insidious and that "they look like news programs, and the persons appearing on them are represented as journalists and experts, making audience members much more likely to ascribe credibility to the misinformation these sources are disseminating". In July 2016, Ofcom again found RT in breach of its impartiality rules, this time over coverage of the Turkish government's treatment of Kurds, Kurdish people. Two episodes of ''Going Underground'' originally broadcast in March, included claims of attacks, atrocities and genocide against the Kurds, and that "Turkey supports ISIS" without offering adequate counterbalance. RT's representatives stated the network "finds it especially difficult to obtain pro-Turkey views for its programming" because of "political tensions between Russia and Turkey following the downing of a Russian military aircraft by Turkish warplanes in November 2015". In November 2016, after the 2016 United States presidential election, US presidential election, ''The Washington Post'' reported that RT and Sputnik were "state-funded Russian information services that mimic the style and tone of independent news organizations yet sometimes include false and misleading stories in their reports" and also that "RT, Sputnik and other Russian sites used social-media accounts to amplify misleading stories already circulating online". The ''Post'' was criticized by ''The Intercept'' and ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' for relying in part on an analysis by PropOrNot. In December 2016, Ofcom found RT in breach of its impartiality rules for the 10th time since the English-language channel launched. A ''Crosstalk'' episode broadcast the previous July, contained a debate about the NATO 2016 Warsaw summit in which all members of the panel expressed critical views. RT's representatives again stated that they couldn't find anybody with alternative opinions willing to take part, and that captions with pro-NATO comments should have been added before broadcast, but the wrong text was accidentally used.

2017–2018

On 12 January 2017, RT was accidentally broadcast for around 10 minutes on a web stream of U.S. public affairs service

. RT stated that while it was testing its systems in preparation for the First inauguration of Donald Trump, inauguration of Donald Trump, its signal was "mistakenly routed onto the primary encoder feeding C-SPAN1's signal to the internet, rather than to an unused backup". On 19 January 2017, RT stated that it had been temporarily restricted from posting media on its Facebook page until 21 January, after the service said that RT had infringed on the copyrights of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Liberty's Current Now TV when broadcasting a live stream of

's final press conference as president of the United States. Current Time TV said that it had not sent any specific complaints to Facebook, and both RT and Current Now TV stated that they had obtained their feed from the Associated Press. The restriction was removed after about 20 hours, and Facebook did not say officially if this was because of a technical error or a policy issue. In September 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice informed RT America that it must register as a Foreign Agents Registration Act, foreign agent of the Russian government. Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, condemned the action as an assault on freedom of speech. A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry threatened retaliatory measures against American journalists. On 13 November 2017, RT America officially registered as a "foreign agent" in the United States with the United States Department of Justice, Department of Justice under the

. Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information. This move was criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which stated: "We're uncomfortable with governments deciding what constitutes journalism or propaganda". In December 2018, the British media regulator

ruled that seven programmes broadcast by RT between 17 March and 26 April of that year, in the wake of the Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, Salisbury nerve agent attacks, had breached the UK's impartiality rules; the BBC reported that RT was "extremely disappointed by Ofcom's conclusions". RT was fined £200,000 but kept its licence to broadcast in the UK. RT described Ofcom's actions against it as "inappropriate and disproportionate per Ofcom's own track record".

2021

German journalist Daniel Lange employed by RT DE left the station in protest against its operation to spy on Alexei Navalny, Alexey Navalny while he was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Germany after Poisoning of Alexei Navalny, being poisoned by FSB. According to Lange, the assignment had nothing to do with journalism as he was instructed in the first place to test the security of the hospital, describe number of internal checkpoints and his RT leadership clearly indicated collected information will not be used for publication. Lange also described reporting bias in the RT where he was instructed by the editor to specifically select footage showing "all the filth of Germany". Russia threatened to ban YouTube in September for deleting the RT channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part. The platform had banned the RT channels for breaking its policies on spreading

and for using the second channel to circumvent an initial week-long suspension.

2022

In January, the United States Department of State, State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) published a report titled "Kremlin-Funded Media: RT and Sputnik's Role in Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem." Its case studies included one on "false narratives" published by RT concerning the Russian military buildup on the Ukrainian border. Employees and associates of RT and its subsidiary

in multiple countries, including the UK and Germany, resigned in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some attributing their departures to the Russian government's prohibition of using the word "invasion" to describe the military offensive.

quit his role as host of the RT France talk show '' Interdit d'interdire'' on 23 February when Russia recognized the Donetsk People's Republic, Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic, Luhansk breakaway states immediately preceding the invasion. Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond suspended his RT talk show, ''The Alex Salmond Show'', on 24 February after receiving public criticism following the invasion. A number of British journalists based both in RT's offices in Moscow and at

's now-disbanded offices in London resigned from the network in response to its coverage of the invasion; according to ''The Times'', four have "publicly announced their resignation, while others are said to have quietly left RT's London bureau". On 25 February, hacking group

claimed a

attack on the network's website, in support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The following day, Alphabet Inc., the owners of Google, temporarily barred RT from receiving any financial return from their ads on their YouTube platform.

2024

In September 2024, the United States indicted two RT employees in New York and imposed sanctions on RT executives. Attorney General Merrick Garland accused RT of paying Tenet Media, a right-wing media company in Tennessee, to promote Russian propaganda to U.S. audiences to influence the outcome of the 2024 United States presidential election, 2024 presidential election. The same month, Antony Blinken announced additional sanctions against RT-affiliated entities and individuals, stating that in 2023 RT established a unit with "cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence" as well as cooperation with Global North and Global South, Global South allies to counter RT. RT was also accused of covertly fundraising to procure body armor, sniper rifles, and other equipment for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

Awards and nominations

* June 2007 – The 11th "Save and Preserve" International Environmental Television Festival awarded its Grand Prix to RT's ''Meeting with Nature'' series. * November 2007 – RT's report on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Chernobyl catastrophe received a special prize from the international 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards * September 2008 – Russia's TEFI to

in ''Best News Anchor'' category * January 2009 – Silver World Medal from the New York Festivals, for Best News Documentary "A city of desolate mothers" * August 2010 – First nomination for an International Emmy Award in News category for its coverage of president

's trip to Russia. * August 2012 – Second nomination for an International Emmy Award for its coverage of the international Occupy Wall Street movement. * May 2014 – Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" from President of Russia

to editor-in-chief

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (born 6 April 1980) is a Russian media executive. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,

References

Notes

Citations

External links

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