RT (TV network)

"Russia Today" redirects here. Not to be confused withRossiya SegodnyaorRussian Federation Today.

"ANO TV-Novosti" redirects here. Not to be confused withRIA Novosti.

"RTTV" redirects here. Not to be confused withRTVI.

RT

Type	State media, news channel, propaganda
Country	Russia
Broadcast area	Worldwide
Headquarters	Borovaya Street, Building 3/1,Moscow, Russia
Programming
Language(s)	News channel: English, French, German, Arabic & Spanish Documentarychannel: English, Russian Online platforms: Portuguese (Brazil) & Serbian.
Picture format	1080i(HDTV) (downscaled to16:9480i/576ifor theSDTVfeed)
Ownership
Owner	ANO "TV-Novosti"
Sister channels	RT America(2010–2022) RT France(2017–2023) RT UK(2014–2022) RT DE(2014–2022) RT en Español RT Arabic RT Documentary Ruptly(including Redfish andMaffick)
History
Founded	6 April 2005; 19 years ago
Launched	10 December 2005(2005-12-10)(registered on 6 April 2005)
Former names	Russia Today (2005–2009)
Links
Webcast	https:// rt /on-air/
Website	www.rt

RT(formerlyRussia TodayorRossiya Segodnya;Russian:Россия Сегодня)is a Russianstate-controlledinternational news television network funded by theRussian government.It operatespay televisionandfree-to-airchannelsdirected 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 - self-named an "autonomous non-profit organization" (ANO) - founded by the Russian state-owned news agencyRIA Novostiin April 2005.During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime MinisterVladimir Putin,included ANO "TV-Novosti" on itslist 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, theArabic-language channelin 2007,Spanishin 2009,Germanin 2014 andFrenchin 2017.RT America(2010–2022),RT UK(2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of theRuptlyvideo agency,which owns the Redfish video channel and theMaffickdigital media company.

RT has regularly been described as a majorpropagandaoutlet for the Russian government andits foreign policy.Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor ofdisinformationandconspiracy theories.UK media regulatorOfcomhas repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.

In 2012, RT'seditor-in-chiefMargarita Simonyancompared the channel to theRussian Ministry of Defence.Referring to theRusso-Georgian War,she stated that it was "waging aninformation war,and with the entire Western world ".In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as aforeign agentwith theUnited States Department of Justiceunder theForeign Agents Registration Act.

RT was banned inUkrainein 2014 afterRussia's annexation of Crimea;LatviaandLithuaniaimplemented similar bans in 2020.GermanybannedRT DEin February 2022.During theRussian invasion of Ukraine,theEuropean UnionandCanadaformally 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.Microsoftremoved RT fromtheir app storeand de-ranked their search results onBing,whileAppleremoved the RT app from all countries except for Russia.However, RT content continues to belaunderedthrough third-party sites.

History

Foundation

RT's first logo from 2005 to 2009

RT's formation was part of apublic relationseffort by theRussian Governmentin 2005 to improve Russia's image abroad.RT was conceived by former media ministerMikhail LesinandAleksei Gromov.At the time of RT's founding,RIA NovostidirectorSvetlana Mironyukstated: "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 theFederal Agency for Press and Mass Media,part of the government of Russia.

In 2005, RIA Novosti foundedANO 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 (Сергей Фролов) was appointed itsCEO.

FormerRussian PresidentDmitry Medvedevvisits RT offices with Editor-in-ChiefMargarita Simonyan

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.Russia Today appointedMargarita Simonyanas its editor-in-chief; she recruited foreign journalists as presenters and consultants.

Simonyan, aged 25 years old when she was appointed, was a formerKremlin poolreporter who had worked in journalism since she was 18. She toldThe New York Timesthat after thefall of the Soviet Union,many new young journalists were hired, resulting in a much younger pool of staffers than other news organizations.JournalistDanny Schechter(who has appeared as a guest on RT)stated that, having been part of the launch staff atCNN,he saw RT as another "channel of young people who are inexperienced, but very enthusiastic about what they are doing".Shortly after the channel was launched, James Painter wrote that RT and similar news channels such asFrance 24andTeleSURsaw themselves as "counter-hegemonic", offering a differing vision and news content from that ofWestern medialike CNN and theBBC.

Development and expansion

Dmitry Medvedev took part in the launch of RT Documentary

Vladimir Putin during a visit to the new RT broadcasting centre

RT launched several new channels in ensuing years: the Arabic language channelRusiya Al-Yaumin 2007, the Spanish language channelActualidad RTin 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 theArktika 2007Russian polar expedition, led byArtur Chilingarovon theAkademik Fyodorovicebreaker.On 31 December 2007, RT's broadcasts of New Year's Eve celebrations inMoscowandSaint Petersburgwere broadcast in the hours prior to the New Year's Eve event atNew York City'sTimes Square.

Russia Today drew particular attention worldwide for its coverage of the2008 South Ossetia war.RT namedGeorgiaas the aggressoragainst theseparatistgovernments ofSouth OssetiaandAbkhazia,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", whichGeorge Washington Universityacademics Jack Nassetta and Kimberly Gross described as an "[attempt] to 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. PresidentBarack Obamamorphinginto Iranian leaderMahmoud Ahmadinejadand asked: "Who poses the greatest nuclear threat?" The ad was banned in American airports. Another showed a Western soldier "merging" with aTalibanfighter and asked: "Is terror only inflicted by terrorists?"One of RT's 2010 billboard advertisements won the British Awards for National Newspaper Advertising "Ad of the Month".

In 2010,Walter Isaacson,Chairman of the U.S. Government'sBroadcasting Board of Governors,which runsVoice of America,Radio Free EuropeandRadio Free Asia,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'sPress TVand China'sChina Central Television(CCTV) in the following sentence. He later explained that he actually was referring to "enemies" inAfghanistan,not the countries he mentioned.In 2011,Secretary of StateHillary Clintonstated that the U.S. was "losing the information war" abroad to foreign channels like RT,Al Jazeeraand China Central Televisionand that they were supplanting the Voice of America.

2012–2021

In early 2012, shortly after his appointment asU.S. Ambassador to Russia,Michael McFaulchallenged Margarita Simonyanon Twitter about allegations from RTthat he had sent Russian opposition figureAlexei Navalnyto study atYale University.According to RT, McFaul was referring to a comment in an article by political scientistIgor 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 theObama administrationwanted a"reset" in relationswith Russia.

On 17 April 2012, RT debutedWorld Tomorrow,a news interview programme hosted byWikiLeaksfounderJulian Assange.The first guest on the program wasHezbollahleaderHassan Nasrallah.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".

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

On 23 October 2012, RT, along with Al Jazeera andC-SPAN,broadcast theFree and Equal Elections Foundationthird-party debate among four third-partycandidates for Presidentof the United States.On 5 November, RT broadcast the two candidates that were voted winners of that debate,Libertarian Partycandidate GovernorGary JohnsonandGreen PartycandidateJill Stein,from RT'sWashington, D.C.studio.

In May 2013, RT announced that former CNN hostLarry Kingwould 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 hisHuluseriesLarry King Nowto RT. On 13 June 2013, RT aired a preview telecast of King's new Thursday evening programPoliticking,with the episode discussingEdward Snowden's leaking of thePRISM surveillance program.

Russian PresidentVladimir Putin2013 visit to RT's new broadcasting centre and interview with RT correspondents

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."

In early October 2014, RT announced the launch of a dedicated news channel,RT UK,aimed at British audiences. The new channel began operating on 30 October 2014.

In October 2016, theNatWestbank 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 isIn the NOW,started in 2018.On 15 February 2019, Facebook temporarily blocked theIn the NOWpage, 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 ofMaffick,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 byRuptly,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 onIn the NOW's funding and management. She added that this requirement has been applied to no other Facebook page.In the NOWalso has an active channel onYouTubeand regularly posts videos fromSoapbox,a Maffick-owned channel.

In February 2021, Matt Field from theBulletin of the Atomic Scientistsreported that RT had created an account onGab,asocial networkknown for itsfar-rightuserbase, right before the start of formerU.S. PresidentDonald Trump'ssecond impeachment trial.Field commented that RT had posted several articles on its Gab account, including one criticizingThe Lincoln Project,an organization run byanti-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 CommissionUrsula von der Leyenannounced theEuropean Unionwould 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 theUnited KingdomandSingaporeas they were dependent on EU companies for the signal feed to RT.Canadian telecom companiesShaw,Rogers,BellandTelusannounced they would no longer offer RT in their channel lineups (although Rogers replaced its RT broadcasts with aUkrainian flag).This move was praised by Canada's Minister of Canadian HeritagePablo Rodriguezwho 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,Instagram,andTikTokmade RT's and Sputnik's social media content unavailable to users in the European Union on 28 February.Microsoftremoved RT and Sputnik fromMSN,theMicrosoft Store,and theMicrosoft Advertisingnetwork on the same day.YouTube, on 1 March, banned access to all RT and Sputnik channels on its platform in Europe (including Britain).Applefollowed by removing RT and Sputnik from itsApp Storein all countries except Russia.Rokudropped the RT app from its channel store,whileDirecTVpulledRT Americafrom its channel lineup.On 1 March, theNational Administration of Telecommunications of Uruguayannounced the removal of RT from the Antel TV streaming platform.New Zealand satellite television providerSkyalso removed RT, citing complaints from customers and consultation with theBroadcasting Standards Authority.Redditblocked new outgoing links to RT and Sputnik on 3 March.On 11 March, YouTube blocked RT and Sputnik worldwide.From 16 March, theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commissionofficially banned RT andRT Francefrom thelist of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution.

On 8 March 2022,RT Francechallenged the EU ban of its activities in theGeneral Courtof theCourt of Justice of the European Union.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 theRussian invasion of Ukraine,"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 collectiveAnonymouslaunched adistributed denial of serviceattack 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-Kremlinandpro-waremblem – a few days after the start of the invasion.

In March 2022,Vice Newsreported that RT had established a channel onGab's video sharing platform Gab TV, which describes itself as a "free speech broadcasting platform."Vice Newsobserved 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 "byBig Techand theglobalistregime ". 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 platformRumble.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 presenterAnton Krasovskysaid 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 Hindiand RT Balkan,to expand its audience.

2023–Present

In September 2023, Russia Today launched its online platform in Portuguese, as "RT Brazil".

On Aug 9, 2024 the broadcast and other equipment from the RT studio in Washington DC would be auctioned off.

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'sHigher School of Economics,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".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.

RT studios building in Moscow in 2013

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 tohigh-definition.

In 2013, a presidential decree issued by Vladimir Putin dissolved RIA Novosti, replacing it with a new information agency calledRossiya Segodnya(directly translated asRussia 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 stateunitary enterpriseRAMI RIA Novosti (Russian:ФГУП "РАМИ" РИА Новости ") and the Association for the Development of International Journalism (ADIJ;Russian:Ассоциация развития международной журналистики (АРМЖ)), 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,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.^[1]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 billionrubles($310 million) in government funding and was expected to receive 15.38 billion rubles ($400 million) in 2015.(For comparison, the biggerBBC World ServiceGroup 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.

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, EgyptandBaghdad, Iraq.

Channel	Description	Language	Launched
RT International	RT's main news channel, covering international and regional news from a Russian perspective. It also includes commentary and documentary programs. Based in Moscow with a presence in Washington, New York, London, Paris, Delhi, Cairo and Baghdad and other cities.	English	2005
RT Arabic	Based in Moscow and broadcast 24/7. Programmes include news, feature programming and documentaries.	Arabic	2007
RT Spanish	Based in Moscow with bureaus in Miami, Los Angeles,HavanaandBuenos Aires.Covers headline news, politics, sports and broadcast specials.	Spanish	2009
RT America	RT America was based in RT's Washington, D.C. bureau, it included programs hosted by American journalists. The channel maintained a separate schedule of programs each weekday from 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.Eastern Time,and simulcasted RT International at all other times.RT Americawas compelled to register as a foreign agent with theUnited States Department of JusticeNational Security Division under theForeign Agents Registration Act.	English	2010 (closed 3 March 2022)
RT UK	RT UK was based at RT's London bureau atMillbank Tower.Includes programs hosted by British journalists. The channel offered five hours of programming per day, Monday to Thursday UK News at 6 pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm and 10 pm and simulcasted RT International at all other times. On Fridays there was no 10 pm UK News bulletin.	English	2014 (closed 2 March 2022)
RT Documentary	A 24-hour documentary channel. The bulk of its programming consists of RT-produced documentaries related to Russia.	English, Russian	2011

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

In addition tonews agencyRuptly,RT also operates the following websites:RT на русском(in Russian),RT en français(French),RT DE(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 onCOVID misinformation.TheAtlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab andMeduzawrote 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-basedRRSatto 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 networkAl Yah Satellite Communications( "YahLive" ).On 12 July 2014, during his visit toArgentina,Putin announced that Actualidad RT would broadcastfree-to-airin the country, the first foreign television channel to do so there.According toRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,Argentina's State Media Authorities decided to suspend RT on 11 June 2016, along with Venezuelan television channelTeleSur,which had both been authorized by the previous left-leaning government ofCristina Kirchner.Officially, Argentina wanted to devote RT's frequency to domestic broadcasts.RT was made available on the dominant Australian subscription television platformFoxtelon 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 toThe Daily Beast,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 2013Chelyabinsk meteorevent, 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"at a 2010 St. Petersburg charity event.In 2017,The Washington Postanalysed 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 bothThe Daily BeastandThe Washington Postassessments, 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 (afterBBC World News),and the number one foreign network in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012.It also rated well among younger Americans under 35 and ininner cityareas.

In the UK, theBroadcasters' Audience Research Board(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-watchedrolling newschannel in Britain, behindBBC NewsandSky News(not includingSky Sports News).RT was soon overtaken byAl Jazeera English,and viewing figures dropped to about 2.1 million by the end of 2013.For comparison, it had marginally fewer viewers thanS4C,the state-fundedWelsh languagebroadcaster,or minor channels such asZing,VivaandRishtey.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 ). In 2013, RT ascended to the ranks of the 100 most watched websites in seven Latin American countries.

APew Researchsurvey 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 journalSecurity Studies.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 authorPeter Pomerantsev,a large audience rating is not RT's principal goal. Their campaigns are "for financial, political and media influence.”RT (andSputnik) "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 asMichael Flynn(retiredUnited States Armylieutenant generaland dismissed director of theDefense Intelligence AgencyandU.S. National Security Advisorin the early days of theTrump administration) 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 inForbesthat "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 toTim Dowling,writing inThe Guardian,"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 byAlyona Minkovski,ran from 2009 to 2012 (when Minkovski left RT to joinThe Huffington Post).Daily BeastwriterTracy QuandescribedThe Alyona Showas "one of RT's most popular vehicles".The New Republiccolumnist 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 magazineSOMAthat "The Alyona Show does political talk with razor-sharp wit."David Weigelcalled 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 thatGlenn Beckwas "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 ReviewwriterJulia Ioffeasked: "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 showAdam vs. the Man,hosted by formerIraq WarMarine veteran and high-profile anti-war activistAdam 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 showWorld Tomorrow,The Independentnoted that Assange, who was underhouse arrest,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 Timesjournalist 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 inSalonwrote that the RT deal "may just be a profitable way for him to get a gigantic retweet".Glenn Greenwaldwrote that RT presenting the Julian Assange show led to "a predictable wave of snide, smug attacks from American media figures".

Breaking the Set(2012–2015) presenter andcorrespondentAbby Martin

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 variousconspiracy theorists,includingneo-Nazis,white supremacists,andHolocaust deniers(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

Russian Telegraph logo

In 2017, RT ran a mocklive tweetingprogram under thehashtag"#1917LIVE" to mark the 100th anniversary of theRussian Revolution.

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 parenthesised):

Current

• Starbound(Egor Piskunov)
• Perspective withScottie Nell Hughes
• Let’s Talk Bharat withAnupam Kher
• Moscow Mules(Chay Bowes)
• Interview(various presenters)
• Going Underground(Afshin Rattansi)
• CrossTalkwithPeter Lavelle
• The 360 View withScottie Nell Hughes

• On the Touchline withJosé Mourinho
• Direct Impact withRick Sanchez
• Worlds Apart withOksana Boyko
• Modus Operandi with Manila Chan
• The Cost of Everything(Christy Ai)
• The Whistleblowers(John Kiriakou)
• Inland Visions(Sean Thomas)
• Africa Now with Paula Slier

Former

RT's former on-air staff included 25 people from RT America.

• On Contact(Chris Hedges)
• Renegade Inc.(Ross Ashcroft)
• Keiser Report(Max KeiserwithStacy Herbert) from RT UK
• America's Lawyer(Mike Papantonio)
• Off the grid(Jesse Ventura)
• Capital Account(Lauren Lyster) from RT America
• Why you should care!(Tim Kirby)
• Breaking the Set(Abby Martin)
• In Context(Peter Lavelle)
• Spotlight(Aleksandr Gurnov)
• On the Money(Peter Lavelle)
• World Tomorrow(Julian Assange)
• Moscow Out(Martyn Andrews)
• Adam vs. the Man (Adam Kokesh)
• The Alyona Show(Alyona Minkovski)
• The Big Picture(Thom Hartmann) from RT America
• The News with Ed Schultz(Ed Schultz)
• Redacted Tonight(Lee Camp) from RT America
• How to Watch the News withSlavoj Žižek
• Larry King Now(Larry King)

News Thing(Sam Delaney)

Watching the Hawks(Tyrel Ventura,Sean Stone,andTabetha Wallace)

SophieCo(Sophie Shevardnadze)

Sputnik(George Galloway) from RT UK

Politicking(Larry King)

News ViewsHughes

On the Touchline withJosé Mourinho

In Question

Raw Take

Interdit d'interdire(Frédéric Taddeï,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

Correspondents

• Paula Slier– Middle East bureau

Other presenters

• George Galloway– RT UK bureau

Business presenters

• Stacy Herbert
• Max Keiser

Documentary presenters

• James Brown –Discovering Russia(formerly news presenter and host ofClose-Up Russia)

Former

• Julian Assange– host ofWorld Tomorrow
• Jason de la Peña
• Dmitry Glukhovsky
• Adam Kokesh– host ofAdam vs. the Man
• Abby Martin
• Kevin Owen
• Alyona Minkovski– host ofThe Alyona Show
• Karen Roberts
• Ed Schultz– RT America
• Liz Wahl– Washington, D.C. bureau

Vladimir Putin with journalists

Guests

Russian PresidentVladimir PutinRT interview, 6 September 2012

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 interviewsprogressiveandlibertarianacademics, intellectuals and writers from organisations likeThe Nation,Reason,Human Events,Center for American Progressand theCato Institutewho are critical of United States foreign and civil liberties policies.Julian Assange of WikiLeaks andNoam Chomsky,the leftist critic of Western policies are "favorites".RT also features little-known commentators including anarchists, anti-globalists and left-wing activists.JournalistDanny Schechterholds 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 the2010 Haiti earthquakefrom "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 PresidentHugo Chávez,reporting onhomelessnessin America, and interviewing the chairman of theNew 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 2010Southern Poverty Law Centerreport stated that RT extensively covered the "birther"and the"New World Order"conspiracy theories and interviewed militia organizer Jim Stachowiak andwhite nationalistJared Taylor.AnAl Jazeera Englisharticle stated that RT has a penchant "for off-beat stories and conspiracy theories".RT Editor-in-ChiefMargarita Simonyantold Nikolaus von Twickel ofThe Moscow Timesthat 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.

Worlds Apart host Oksana Boyko with Filipino Foreign Affairs SecretaryAlan Peter Cayetano.

Notable guests have includedthink tankintellectuals likeJared Bernstein,John FefferandLawrence Korb;journalists and writersJacob Sullum,Pepe Escobar,andBrian Doherty,and heads of state, including Ecuador'sRafael Correa,and Syria'sBashar al-Assad.Nigel Farage,the leader ofUK Independence Partyfrom 2010 to 2016, appeared on RT eighteen times from 2010 to 2014.Steve Bannonhas stated that he has appeared on RT "probably 100 times or more".Manuel Ochsenreiter, aneo-Nazi,has repeatedly appeared on RT to represent the German point of view.RT News has also frequently hostedRichard B. Spencer,an Americanwhite supremacistairing his opinions in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad,and has hostedHolocaust denierRyan Dawson,presenting him as ahuman rights activist.Such figures asAlex Jones,Jim Marrs,David Ray Griffin,andWebster Tarpleyhave appeared on RT to advance conspiracy theories about topics such as theSeptember 11 attacks,theBilderberg group,and the "New World Order".

Content

ODNI Statement on Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections

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",and being the same kind of" tool "for Russia that the" BBC orCNN"are" for the UK and USA ". In 2012, she stated that RT waged" an information war... with the entire Western world "during theRusso-Georgian War.

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 ofReporters Without Borders,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 bloggerAnton Nosiksaid the creation of RT "smacks ofSoviet-style propagandacampaigns ".In 2009,Luke Harding(then Moscow correspondent forThe 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 grandmasterGarry Kasparov,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. InE-International Relations,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 inThe Nationmagazine, "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 anEmmy Award). "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 atColumbia School of Journalismmonitored 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 aTumblrblog.Media analyst Vasily Gatov wrote in a 2014Moscow Timesarticle that sharp ethical and reporting skills are not required for Russian media employees, including RT.RT has beendeprecatedby theWikipedia communityas 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 andCGTN's coverage of the2020 United States presidential election,Martin Moore and Thomas Colley ofKing's College Londonconceptualized 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 likeFox News,NewsmaxandOne 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 theRusso-Georgian Warorthe 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 inThe Guardianin 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"makes propaganda difficult to counter. (Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews ofRAND Corporation).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 resurgentnationalistparties 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 withCOVID-19 misinformationand 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 ofMalaysia Airlines Flight 17on 17 July 2014 while the plane was flying over pro-Russianseparatist-controlled territoryin Ukraine. TheDutch Safety Board(DSB) and the Dutch-ledjoint investigation team(JIT), concluded that the airliner was downed by a RussianBuksurface-to-air missilelaunched 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 ForceAn-26transport 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 ofdisinformationandconspiracy theories.

In 2010,The Economistmagazine 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 inDer Spiegelsaid that RT "uses a chaotic mixture of conspiracy theories and crude propaganda", pointing to a program that "mutated" theBoston Marathon bombinginto a U.S. government conspiracy.

The launch of RT UK was the subject of much comment in the British press in late 2014.InThe Observer,Nick Cohenaccused the channel of consciously spreading conspiracy theories and of being a "prostitution of journalism".Oliver Kamm,a columnist forThe Times,called on British broadcasting regulatorOfcomto act against this "den of deceivers".

Journalists atThe Daily BeastandThe Washington Posthave observed that RT employs Tony Gosling, an exponent of long-discredited theories concerning the alleged control of the world byIlluminatiand the CzaristantisemiticforgeryThe 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 supportingRussian annexation of Crimea;the EU preparing "a form of genocide" against Russians; in Germany itfalsely 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 ownfact-checkingproject, FakeCheck, in response to accusations of spreading fake news.ThePoynter Instituteconducted a content analysis of FakeCheck and concluded it "mixes some legitimate debunks with other scantily sourced or dubiously framed 'fact checks.'"Ben Nimmo of theAtlantic Council'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 the2014 pro-Russia unrest in UkraineRT has repeatedly been exposed for producingfake 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 Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The 'Putin burger' story was quickly exposed as a fabrication, and RT removed it from their site.

When caught out in fakes, 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 ofKing's College Londonnoted that RT's coverage of the2020 United States presidential electionwas anti-Joe Bidenand pro-Trump, with RT promoting theTrump campaign's unfounded claims that Biden was the head of a "crime family", as well as allegations that Biden's sonHuntermade corrupt business deals in Ukraine and Chinaand 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'sunfounded 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 inThe Christian Science Monitorstated 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 byThe Independent,RT journalists have said that coverage of sensitive issues in Russia is allowed, but direct criticism of Vladimir Putin or PresidentDmitry Medvedevwas not.Masha Karp wrote inStandpointmagazine 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 inThe New York Timesthat in RT's Russia, "corruption is not quite a scourge but a symptom of a developing economy".

Anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism

RT reporter covering theGeorge Floyd protestsin Iran in June 2020

The New RepublicwriterJames Kirchickaccused the network of "often virulentanti-Americanism,worshipful portrayal of Russian leaders ".Edward Lucaswrote inThe Economist(quoted inAl Jazeera English) 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 inThe Independentthat RT "has made a name for itself as a strident critic of US policy".Alessandra Stanleywrote inThe New York Timesthat RT is "like the Voice of America, only with more money and a zesty anti-American slant".David Weigelwrites 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 professorStephen F. Cohenstated 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 the2011–2012 Russian election protestswith those of U.S. authorities nationwide arresting members of theOccupy 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 presenterAbby Martin,has been accused of being anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian byThe AlgemeinerandIsrael National News.Israeli foreign ministerAvigdor Liebermanmade a complaintto Putin at their official meeting in 2012.

Climate change denial

In November 2021, a study by theCenter for Countering Digital Hatedescribed 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 theCOVID-19 pandemicfor its viewers in Russia, RT's coverage of the pandemic for its international viewers was saturated withCOVID-19 misinformationand conspiracy theories. RT urged domestic Russian audiences to vaccinate and wearmasksto prevent COVID-19, while advocating against virus-prevention measures on its English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic-language platforms.

Responses

States

European Union– Sanctions againstDmitry Kiselyov,the head of Russia's state-controlledRossiya Segodnyaand RT television presenter, have been in place since the2014 invasion and annexationof Ukraine's Crimea. TheEU Councilcites 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.TheEuropean ParliamentSpecial 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 andSputnikare pushing local broadcasters in Europe off from the market thanks to massive funding from Russian Federation.Editor-in-chiefMargarita Simonyanwas sanctioned by the European Union on 23 February 2022 when Russia recognized theDonetskandLuhanskbreakaway states.On 27 February 2022, the EU banned RT and Sputnik from broadcasting in its member countries, following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Australia–Minister for CommunicationsPaul Fletcherrequested the partially Australian government fundedpublic service broadcasterSBSsuspend broadcasts of RT andNTVnews programming on itsWorld Watchplatform. Fletcher stated, "Given the current actions of the Russian government [2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine], 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 providerFoxtel's listings the next day due to concerns about the situation in Ukraine.

Canada– On 16 March 2022, theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commissionbanned RT and RT France from broadcasting in Canada.

Germany– After failing to obtain a broadcast license compliant with theState Media Treaty,RT DEwas banned in Germany by theCommission for Licensing and Supervision(ZAK) on 2 February 2022.The RussianMinistry of Foreign Affairsresponded with "retaliatory measures" to remove German broadcasterDeutsche Wellefrom Russia.

Gibraltar– Chief MinisterFabian Picardorequested 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.

Latvia– 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 ofDmitry Kiselyovwho 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".

Lithuania–Linas Antanas Linkevičius,Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, posted on Twitter on 9 March 2014 amid theannexation 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 byReporters Without Bordersas "misuse of the EU sanctions policy".

Poland– TheNational Broadcasting Councilbanned RT in Poland on 24 February 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine– RT has been banned in Ukraine by theMinistry of Internal Affairssince August 2014, following theinvasion and annexationof Ukrainian territory.

United Kingdom– On 18 March 2022, ANO TV Novosti's broadcasting license was revoked byOfcom,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 regards 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.

United States– In September 2017, theUS Department of Justicecompelled RT to file paperwork under theForeign Agents Registration Actin the United States.Previously, theUnited States Secretary of StateJohn Kerryhad referred to RT as a state-sponsored "propaganda bullhorn" and he continued by saying, "Russia Today [sic] 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 Stengelfrom the U.S.Department of Stateresponded.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'scampaign teambanned both RT and theSputnik news agencyfrom 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 ofRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections,sparking an angry response from theRussian 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,AlphabetchairmanEric Schmidtannounced 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,theShadow Chancellorof theBritish 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, theUK Foreign Officebanned 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 slanderingalternative media."

Other responses

2008–2012

During the2008 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 toVariety,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 forThe Independent,said that RT had "instructed reporters not to report from Georgian villages withinSouth Ossetiathat had beenethnically 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 Watchsaid that RT's claim of 2,000 South Ossetian casualties was exaggerated.

RT team covering protests inBolotnaya Squarein Moscow on 10 December 2011

In 2012, Jesse Zwick ofThe New Republiccriticized 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 coveringlibertarianRepublicanRon Paulduringhis 2012 presidential campaign.Writing after her 2014 on-air resignation,Liz Wahlsuggested 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 ofAdam vs. the Man,hostAdam Kokeshendorsed fundraising for Paul, leading to a complaint to theFederal Election Commissioncharging a political contribution had been made by a foreign corporation. Kokesh said his cancellation in August was related to Paul's aideJesse Bentonrather than the complaint.

In September 2012, UK broadcast regulatorOfcomfound that two Libyan dispatches broadcast by RT'sLizzie Phelanin 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 450Kurdishcivilians 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 SethostAbby 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 toCrimeaand 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 inGeorgia,this is happening inUkraine".Glenn Greenwaldsaid 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'sinterventionin 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 2014Politicoarticle, 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."

RT America broadcast with former anchorLiz Wahl

When asked about a clip of her interviewing a guest on RT byBrian Stelter,host of CNN'sReliable Sources,Wahl responded,

They get these extreme voices on that have this kind of hostile toward the West viewpoints towards the world, very extremist. These are the people that they have on. And when I was on the anchor desk, they would instruct you to egg on these guests and try to get them, you know, rallied up, to really fire off their anti-American talking points. Listen, I'm all about exposing government corruption. I'm all about being critical of the government. But this is different. This is promoting the foreign policy of somebody that has just invaded a country, has invaded the country and is then lying about it, is using the media as a tool to fulfill his foreign policy interests. And RT is part of Putin's propaganda network and it's very, very troubling in the wake of what is going on in Ukraine today.

The New York Timesop-edcolumnistNicholas Kristofcommented on CNN'sPiers Morgan Liveabout 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 toBuzzFeed,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 afailed state".When she refused, other reporters were sent instead.

Steve Bloomfield, the foreign editor ofMonoclewrote 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 ofMalaysia Airlines Flight 17,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 theUniversity of Marylandsaid: "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, shetweeted,"RT style guide Rule 1: It is ALWAYS * Ukraine's fault (* add name as applicable)". She toldThe 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 itsdue impartialityrules, Ofcom put RT management "on notice that any future breaches of the due impartiality rules may result in further regulatory action, including consideration of astatutory 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.

President Putin with Margarita Simonyan in front of RT's "Question more" slogan (2015)

Following the March 2015European Councilsummit which concluded that action was needed to "challenge Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns", theEuropean External Action Servicewas tasked to respond.European Parliamentbriefing 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 theEU vs Disinformationwebsite 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 andSyria.It also upheld the complaint by theBBCthat allegations made in an episode ofThe Truthseekerthat a BBCPanoramafilm,Saving Syria's Children,had faked a parts of a report on a chemical weapon attack in Syria were "materially misleading".

In an episode ofThe Truthseeker,namedGenocide of Eastern Ukraine,they stated that the Ukrainian government was deliberately bombing civilians and had murdered and tortured journalists, as well ascrucifying 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".

Main article:Crucified Boy

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 theMcCain Institutefor International Leadership, suggested that Western countries freeze RT's assets "not because of the odious things it spews" but as part of theYukos shareholder case.

A report released by the US think-tank theRAND Corporationin 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 ofKurdish people.Two episodes ofGoing Undergroundoriginally broadcast in March, included claims of attacks, atrocities andgenocideagainst 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 theUS presidential election,The Washington Postreported 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".ThePostwas criticized byThe InterceptandFortunefor relying in part on an analysis byPropOrNot.

In December 2016, Ofcom found RT in breach of its impartiality rules for the 10th time since the English-language channel launched. ACrosstalkepisode broadcast the previous July, contained adebateabout theNATO2016 Warsaw summitin 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 serviceC-SPAN.RT stated that while it was testing its systems in preparation for theinauguration 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 ofRadio Liberty's Current Now TV when broadcasting a live stream ofBarack Obama'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 theAssociated 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, theU.S. Department of Justiceinformed RT America that it must register as aforeign agentof the Russian government. Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, condemned the action as an assault onfreedom of speech.A spokesperson for theRussian foreign ministrythreatened retaliatory measures against American journalists.

On 13 November 2017, RT America officially registered as a "foreign agent" in the United States with theDepartment of Justiceunder theForeign Agents Registration Act.Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information.This move was criticized by theCommittee to Protect Journalists,which stated: "We're uncomfortable with governments deciding what constitutes journalism or propaganda".

In December 2018, the British media regulatorOfcomruled that seven programmes broadcast by RT between 17 March and 26 April of that year, in the wake of theSalisbury 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 onAlexey Navalnywhile he was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Germany afterbeing 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 spreadingCOVID-19 misinformationand for using the second channel to circumvent an initial week-long suspension.

2022

In January, theState Department'sGlobal 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 subsidiaryRuptlyin multiple countries, including the UK and Germany, resigned in response to the2022 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.Frédéric Taddeïquit his role as host of the RT France talk showInterdit d'interdireon 23 February when Russia recognized theDonetskandLuhanskbreakaway states immediately preceding the invasion.Former First Minister of ScotlandAlex Salmondsuspended 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 atRT UK's now-disbanded offices in London resigned from the network in response to its coverage of the invasion;according toThe Times,four have "publicly announced their resignation, while others are said to have quietly left RT's London bureau".

On 25 February, hacking groupAnonymousclaimed adistributed denial of serviceattack on the network's website, in support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia.The following day,Alphabet Inc.,the owners ofGoogle,temporarily barred RT from receiving any financial return from their ads on their YouTube platform.

Awards and nominations

Martyn Andrewsreporting from Siberia in 2007

• June 2007 – The 11th "Save and Preserve" International Environmental Television Festivalawarded its Grand Prix to RT'sMeeting with Natureseries.
• November 2007 – RT's report on the anniversary of theChernobyl catastrophereceived a special prize from the international 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards
• September 2008 – Russia'sTEFItoKevin OweninBest News Anchorcategory
• January 2009 – Silver World Medal from the New York Festivals, for Best News Documentary "A city of desolate mothers"
• August 2010 – First nomination for anInternational Emmy Awardin News category for its coverage of presidentBarack Obama's trip to Russia.
• August 2012 – Second nomination for an International Emmy Award for its coverage of the internationalOccupy Wall Streetmovement.
• May 2014 –Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"from President of RussiaVladimir Putinto editor-in-chiefMargarita Simonyanfor coverage of theRusso-Ukrainian War
• August 2014 – Third nomination for an International Emmy Award for its coverage of theGuantanamo Bay hunger strikes.
• August 2016 – Fourth nomination for an International Emmy Award for its coverage of the 70th anniversary session of theUnited Nations General Assembly.

See also

• Disinformation in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Freedom of the press in Russia
• Media of Russia
• Russia Beyond the Headlines
• Russian–Ukrainian information war
• Soviet Central Television
• RTLM

Explanatory notes

1.^Writing inThe New York Times,Stephen Heyman estimated that more than $100 million had been spent on the station as of May 2008.

External links

• Media related toRussia Todayat Wikimedia Commons
• Official website(in English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian)