International TV Channel with Russian Face

Russian TV channel in English Language and for English Audience

Russia Today or RT is the first Russian 24/7 English-language news channel which delivers the latest news on current events from around the word and brings the Russian view on global news.

english to russian translation services

Origin of "Russia Today" Brand

This Russian government-funded television network broadcasts the news and shows different opinions on various Russia bound and worldwide events. It operates television channels directed to audience outside of Russia and provides internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and, of course, Russian. RT is represented as a brand of "TV-Novosti" (autonomous non-profit organization), founded by the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti. "Russia Today" was officially created and publicly announced on 6 April 2005.

Accusations of and Claims against RT

From the start of broadcasting, the RT network was described by foreign media as the source of propaganda on behalf of the Russian government and its foreign policy. It has also been accused by many of spreading the twisted information by news reporters. For instance, the UK media regulator, Ofcom, at some time in the past, found RT as being impartial and spreading the "materially misleading" content. RT was even compared with Russian Army and Defense Ministry that wages war against the entire Western world. In September of 2017 the USA branch of RT (RT America) was obliged to register as a "foreign agent" with the United States of Justice and be accountable to the US for its financial activities.

RT was intended to create a positive image of Russia

The creation of RT was initiated as the project of public relations by the Russian government in 2005. The key intention was to make a positive image of Russia in the west and abroad in general. According to official sources the project was conceived by Mikhail Lesin, former media minister, and Alexsei Gromov, V. Putin's spokesperson. When RT was just found, the director of RIA Novosti stated that "in the minds of people thinking about Russia come up the images of communism, snow and poverty", and later added" that "we would like to change the negative association with Russia and present to the world the more complete and bright picture of life in our country".

Russian TV as the autonomous non-profit organization funded by Russian Federal Agency

The Russia Today TV was registered as an autonomous non-profit organization with financial support from the federal budget of Russia via the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. Back in 2005 the RIA Novosti team helped establish ANO TV-Novosti (Autonomous Non-profit Organization TV-News) which had to be like a parent for the intended channel. ANO TV-Novosti was registered on the 6th of April in 2005. The first person who occupied the CEO position of the ANO TV-Novosti company was Sergey Frolov.

How and when RT was launched

The Russia Today TV channel was launched on December 10, 2005. At the start of the channel operation about 300 journalists were employed, nearly 70 of them were from outside of Russia. Margarita Simonyan was appointed as its editor-in-chief who actually recruited foreign journalists as presenters and consultants. She stated that the intent of the channel was to impart a professional look and format to the Russian international TV broadcasting like that of BBC and Euronews that would reflect the Russia's true opinion of the world and display the more balanced picture of Russia.

Who managed RT

Margarita was 25 when she was hired to work for the channel. By that time she had already worked for some time as a Kremlin pool reporter and actually started her career as a journalist when she was 18. When interviewed by the New York Times she said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union many young journalists were invited and that's why Russia Today channel had a much younger stuff than any other news organizations. Being the guest on RT, journalist Danny Schechter stated that from the standpoint of a launching team of CNN he saw RT as the adventurous channel consisting mostly of young but experienced and enthusiastic people who know perfectly what they are doing. Within a short while after the RT channel was launched. James Painter wrote that Russia Today has similar views to what France24 and TeleSUR have, offering diverse visions of facts and events as opposed to western media like CNN and BBC.

Branch Channels of "Russia Today"

Within the next few years RT launched several new channels: Rusiya AL-Yaum channel in Arabic language in 2007, RT Actualidad channel in Spanish in 2009, RT America channel in English meant for highlighting the events occurring in the United States, and the RT Documentary channel in 2011.

RT broadcast from North Pole and New Year's Eve events

In August of 2007 the RT was the first TV channel to be broadcasted live from the North Pole (the report lasted for 5 minutes and 41 seconds). The RT live broadcasting from the NP was for a reason. Its crew was invited to participate in the Arktika 2007 polar expedition which was led by Artur Chilingarov on the Akademik Fyodorov Icebreaker. On the 31th of December of 2007, RT broadcasted the New Year' Eve celebrations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, just a few hours prior to the New Year's Eve event at New York City's Times Square.

Rebranding for attraction of more viewers

In 2009, Russia Today was rebranded to a shorter "RT" name. According to Simonyan the name change was just to attract more viewers who was interested in watching news from Russia as they were, without bias and prejudice. RT is actually one of the international TV channels that challenge international and USA media news coverage. Read more..