RT SPACE 360 FILM WITH LEGENDARY COSMONAUT LEONOV IN AIB AWARD FINALS

MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER20, 2018—RT’s panoramic film featuring legendary pilot and cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, as well as RT Spanish host Aliana Nieves, will compete in the finals of the prestigious Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) International Media Excellence Awards.

RT’s panoramic “Earth 360˚” documentary, featuring legendary Soviet cosmonaut and pilot Alexey Leonov, a two-time Hero of the Soviet Union and the first person to step foot in open space, and NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, commander of the second manned mission to orbit the moon, has been shortlisted in the “Interactive” category of the AIB Media Excellence Awards. In the film, Leonov and Stafford, who made history when they shook hands after the successful Apollo-Soyuz docking in 1975, compare their first-hand spaceflight experiences to RT’s SPACEWALK 360, the first-ever panoramic video filmed in open space. RT will compete against projects by BBC World Service and Voice of America.

RT Spanish correspondent Aliana Nieves has been named a finalist in the “Breakthrough Talent” category. During her time at RT, the Cuban native has made dozens of reports from various parts of the world, including coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the parliamentary elections in Spain, and the farewell ceremony to Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Havana. She has also conducted interviews with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the former President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, among other prominent political and public figures. Aliana Nieves is one of 7 finalists, which include reporters from BBC, CNN, and Bloomberg.

In 2015, legendary broadcast journalist Larry King, host of Larry King Now and Politicking on RT America, was presented with the AIB Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is the fourteenth year of the International Media Excellence Awards (the AIBS). The awards ceremony will be held on the 7th of November in London where winners will be chosen in 19 categories.

The Association for International Broadcasting is the trade association for TV, radio, and online broadcasting, established in 1993. Its membership boasts leading international television and radio broadcasters, and major professional associations, with a total of more than 25,000 media organizations as members. Besides the UK headquarters, the AIB has regional offices in European countries, South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Middle East.