BBC endorses reporter’s actions seeking to find Russian influence in Yellow Vest protests
Commenting on the leaked conversation of one of its journalists eager to get anything to connect Russia to Yellow Vest protests because “editorial wants blood,” BBC called it an “impartial” approach to journalism.
Earlier on Sunday, RIA Novosti released a set of screenshots, purporting to show a conversation between BBC journalist Olga Ivshina and a France-based 'stringer'. The journalist urged the stringer to find anything Russian linked to the protests, explaining that the “editorial board wants blood.”
Ivshina’s messages contained insights such as suggesting to the stringer that maybe “some Russian business is making big bucks” on the protests.
“Maybe they are eating cutlets out there en masse, for example?” she wrote. “Or maybe the far-right are the main troublemakers?”
In an email response to RT, the BBC said that Olga Ivshina, was totally right to be looking into the alleged Russian involvement.
“As the French Foreign Minister had spoken publicly about media reports of a possible Russian influence in the protests, it was perfectly reasonable for our correspondent to raise the subject,” the message reads. “However, in the end her reports made no mention of a possible connection with Russia at all. We stand by our impartial, independent journalism.”
As with virtually any trouble in the West nowadays, the quest for “finding” Russians behind the French protests began rather fast. Last week some news outlets and pundits attempted to find something sinister behind the fact that Russian news outlets and social media accounts wrote about the event that dominated headlines for almost a month.
Also on rt.com Russian media covered the Yellow Vest protests; now France is investigating Russian ‘interference’French authorities confirmed that they were looking into allegations of Russian Interference and an investigation had been launched. However, they declined to comment on the matter.
Russia for its part has firmly denied any involvement, dismissing accusations as “slander.”
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