MOSCOW, DECEMBER 10, 2020 — On December 10, 2005, RT went on air for the first time from its Moscow studio; today, RT broadcasts from multiple continents in six languages across TV and online platforms. Over the last 15 years RT has become one of the most watched international TV news networks in the world, a nine-time Emmy/ International Emmy finalist for news, and one of the most discussed and influential news media organizations worldwide.
“Dear foreign intelligence services: sleep easy tonight. I promise that we're taking a day off from meddling, in honor of RT’s anniversary,” said RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.
RT airs award-winning programming helmed by television legend Larry King, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, ex-Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa, former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and ex-UK MP George Galloway, the “most dangerous financial journalist” Max Keiser, former head of French External Intelligence Alain Juillet, and many other internationally acclaimed personalities. The network counts ex-minister of foreign affairs of Austria Karin Kneissl and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek among its regular online contributors.
According to the international research company Ipsos, 100 million people across 47 countries watch RT on TV every week. RT was the world’s first TV news network to reach 10 billion views on YouTube, beating the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Euronews, and FOX News to the milestone.
RT is celebrating the impact of its work over the last 15 years with a ‘Green Menace’ anniversary campaign, referencing RT’s bright green logo. The feature reel was modeled on the instructional films mass-produced in the US during the Cold War era, and provides instructions on how to protect oneself from the RT waves.
RT has also released leaked secret footage* of how world leaders – Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson – really feel about RT in their most private moments.
* Warning: deepfake
Following its English-language debut in 2005, RT launched a round-the-clock Arabic channel in 2007 and a Spanish-language service in 2009. In 2010, RT opened its first satellite studio, in Washington, DC, and launched a separate channel, RT America, to focus on US issues. RT UK began broadcasting from London in 2014 and RT France, from Paris, in 2017. Today the RT network also includes documentary channel RTDoc in English and Russian, a digital platform RT DE in German, and a multimedia sister news agency Ruptly, based in Berlin. The original, flagship English-language channel is now known as RT International and broadcasts 24/7 to more than 100 countries around the world.
RT is the winner of the Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards for best 24-hour newscast, and a nine-time Emmys finalist. The network has been nominated for the International News & Current Affairs Emmy for its reportage on the crash-landing of the Superjet 100 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport (2020), the breaking news of a massive fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo (2019), the coverage of the humanitarian crisis in the Iraqi city of Mosul (2018), the 70th session of the UN General Assembly (2016), Guantanamo Bay inmates’ hunger strike (2014), the Occupy Wall Street protests (2012) and US President Barack Obama’s first visit to Moscow (2010). RT America’s Boom Bust financial show was a Daytime Emmy finalist for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for a Live Action Program in 2020, while Pulitzer-prize laureate Chris Hedges, host of On Contact with Chris Hedges, secured RT America its first Daytime Emmy nomination in 2017, as Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host. Over the years, the network has collected hundreds of international news, media, television and creative awards.
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Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton: “We are in an information war and we are losing that war… the Russians have opened up an English-language network. I’ve seen it in a few countries, and it is quite instructive.”
Serbian film director Emir Kusturica: “The Russian RT channel is the best example of what television should look like, [and is a far cry from] BBC and CNN, which broadcast one-sided information.”
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters: “I'm happy to say I get lots of my news from RT.”
American film director Oliver Stone: “I only get my news from Russia’s RT. I trust it more than I do the North American media, which is nothing but propaganda.”
Ex-president of Brazil Lula di Silva: “The role that Russia Today is playing in the world of information is extremely important and of the essence to provide information as fully and with as much plurality possible to people all over the planet.”