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Стивен Мак-Нил (Оксфорд, Великобритания) комментирует вещание российского телеканала Russia Today

Russia Today – propaganda live to your living room?
As the BBC Russian Service faces continued doubts about its future existence, does the rapid expansion of RT pose a danger to honest, free journalism in the Federation?

The Beirut Media Conference met on Friday 5th February. The event played host to a censorship panel intended to tackle the impact of media network ownership and powerful political influence on the ability of journalists to report freely on certain issues. However, the freedom of the press is not just a problem in Arab states. Plenty of us may think to trust what we see on the TV in our home countries. In the UK, the BBC has a requirement laid down by OFCOM to produce news that is “free from political bias”. The age of digital TV means we are free to view broadcasts from whatever part of the world we can get a signal. A quick hop around the global news channels demonstrates that political power continues to have a great role to play in all media markets.

One broadcaster, Russia Today, (RT –Sky Channel 512) has recently launched an advertising campaign across the UK and US. This has featured a poster of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad morphing into President Obama questioning, “Who poses the greater nuclear threat?” It has been banned from US airports and caused quite a stir wherever it has been displayed. Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT says the station’s intention is to present “an unbiased portrait of Russia”. RT is sponsored by the state owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Phillip Hanson, Professor of the Political Economy of Russia at Birmingham University, fails to see what the controversial poster will achieve. “Maliciously linking Ahmedinajad and Obama doesn’t fit Russian foreign policy. The Putin team is ambivalent about both of them, but at least seems currently to be cooperating with the US over sanctions on Iran.” RT can however guarantee that the head-turning billboards will get people discussing the channel and will bring the station to more prominence.

So are we a soft touch for allowing this kind of advertising on our streets? Such a poster featuring Prime Minister Putin would never be allowed in Russia. Professor Hanson believes that being a soft touch on issues such as freedom is expression isn’t such a bad thing, “…freedom of speech should be restricted only by a prohibition on incitement to violence.” Perhaps by banning the posters in their nations airports – spaces where sensitivity towards terrorism and patriotism are magnified – the US considers these an incitement to violence? More likely it is their own self-censorship that means they’re thrown in the can.

The rise of RT since 2005 has coincided with the BBC’s steady decline in its Russian service. The service has broadcast on various frequencies across Russia since March 1946 and has been used by the BBC to communicate news stories in a way that was not possible to hear from Russian state media. During Soviet times signals were severely jammed although this did not stop exiled Russian writers and philosophers from getting their works and opinions heard by those inside the USSR. Downing Street was petitioned in 2009 after cuts to the service were proposed. In an open letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, Robert Chandler, a translator and contributor to the BBC Russian Service for 30 years suggests, “the Russian Service has become terrified of offending the Kremlin”. With state run media near dominant, Chandler states, “the need for an independent minded BBC Russian Service may soon be greater than ever.”

RT is a product of the Russian political climate that has developed since Putin’s shift from President to Prime Minister. Elizabeth Robson, former Head of the BBC Russian Service admits that television “has been brought under complete state control”. Pressure from the Kremlin has affected even what foreign producers are willing to broadcast in this new, self-censored Russia where policy and formal censorship seems to have been replaced by threat and danger. The death of award-winning journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya continues to shadow over the Russian media. Politkovskaya was shot dead in an elevator at her Moscow apartment block in 2006. No one has ever been convicted of her murder.

The advertising campaign follows on the heels of RT’s headline reporting on the continuing New York demonstrations calling for a further investigation into 9/11. The station has cast doubt on the official accounts of the tragedy, perhaps to deflect attention away from domestic issues of terrorism including the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999. The Twin Towers was a much bigger disaster in terms of loss of life although both terrorist incidents led the governments in question to react with military force – the US in Afghanistan and Iraq and Russia in Chechnya.

Censorship is a foot on the road to indoctrination and is the basis for a government to push through more radical policies and ultimately gain more control. Executive Director of CAN (NYC Coalition of Accountability Now) Ted Walter believes “if we have a false understanding, we’re going to be basing policies on that false understanding.” RT has undoubtedly struck a chord in America by joining the 9/11 debates.

The controversy caused by the poster campaign must serve some purpose. On February 11th 2010, RT.com leads with articles on “Russia Foreign Minister starts Latin America trip with Cuba visit” and “Bank data sharing agreement with US sunk by EU parliament”. Previous lead stories have included “Russian Fifth Generation Fighter: High Hopes” and the almost mocking “US army opens risky gay front”. Simonyan’s “unbiased portrait” ideal doesn’t seem to hold up.

As the BBC Russian Service declines, RT’s expansion is sure to continue. The breath of fresh air it brings to already heavily biased news reporting in the US should not be mistaken to be news that is free from prejudice. RT’s messages may be mixed, but it all adds up to Russia making its presence felt in the new-age digital market – a battleground where freedom of speech is harder to restrict and dissenting opinion harder to hush. State funding will ensure a near bottomless bucket of cash to help us see things from the Russian perspective. It’s still up to us who we believe.