RT UK is the newest part of a Kremlin-funded news network with more money than the BBC World Service . It’s already facing the possibility of Ofcom sanctions for its lack of impartiality. BuzzFeed News investigates why Russia Today set its sights on the UK.
Two weeks after its launch, RT UK is already Britain's most controversial TV channel.
REUTERS/Yuri Kochetkov/Pool
The new channel, which was launched on 2 November on satellite and digital TV, is the UK-specific version of RT, which was launched as Russia Today in 2005. A Kremlin-funded and -controlled Russian news network aimed at audiences outside Russia, RT broadcasts in English, Arabic, and Spanish, and has been accused by observers and former employees of at best presenting a narrow interpretation of world events, and at worst pushing a pro-Kremlin agenda at the expense of impartial reporting.
While it is tempting to dismiss RT as an irrelevance, overall it claims to reach 600 million people, including via its digital platforms, and has a bigger annual budget than the BBC World Service.
RT UK may also be the first TV news network to launch while under threat of being taken off air – but it doesn't seem to mind.
UK viewers have been able to see RT's main English-language channel – which broadcasts from Moscow, London, and Washington, DC – since it launched as Russia Today in 2005. Now RT UK is broadcasting about five hours of original live and pre-recorded content every day from its studios on the 16th floor of London's Millbank Tower.
The UK's media regulator, Ofcom, is watching carefully.
Ofcom says RT's main channel has breached its legally binding Broadcasting Code on nine occasions. There are seven ongoing investigations into more alleged breaches, including a failure to be impartial – as is required by the code – and the use of graphic imagery in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine. (RT's treatment of that story that prompted London-based reporter Sara Firth to quit in July).
Ofcom issued its latest warning last week, saying that further breaches by RT "may result in further regulatory action, including consideration of a statutory sanction". That action could include a fine of up to £250,000 and, in extremis, the revoking of its UK broadcasting licence.
