Remarks by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief ofthe Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency and Russia Today (RT), emphasised that the sanctions imposed by the United States against RT are only due to the channel’s standard journalistic activities. No one has accused the broadcaster of spreading fake news, Simonyan said.
Commenting on the allegations of election interference against RT, Simonyan told the Vedomosti newspaper, “The term ‘election interference’ sounds as if we formed a hacker group and disrupted the vote counting system or manipulated the ballot papers. However, it is obvious that we have never engaged in such a thing. We have only carried out normal journalistic activities that may affect someone’s opinion, as in any journalistic activity.”
Simonyan also drew attention to the fact that any news about politics can influence someone’s opinion and said, “If you pay attention, no one accuses us of spreading fake news, because we do not do such things. Even if it is fake news, there are many media organisations that find all means of influence good. I am old-fashioned in this sense. I am against fake news and this is my principled stance.”
Simonyan added that RT has been accused of being de facto overworked.
Alleged Attack on RT Employee in the US
Criticising Washington’s intimidation policy against RT employees in the country, Simonyan said that an investigation was launched against an employee named “Dasha” on charges of physical assault and that his house was searched.
Stating that police officers entered Dasha’s house with a search warrant, Simonyan said that they managed to evacuate the employee, for whom no arrest warrant has yet been issued, with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
