RT UK launch was not the big media event promised by the fanfare and the channel's reach does not match its lofty pretensions”
By Stephen Ennis
The Kremlin's international TV channel RT (formerly known as Russia Today) launched a new UK service on 30 October amid fanfare and controversy worthy of a major media event. But the actual broadcasts suggest that, in the UK at least, RT is likely to remain a "media minnow".
RT UK's pre-launch publicity promised five hours of dedicated programming on weekday evenings, "new perspectives" for viewers "weary of a bland broadcast culture dominated by mainstream analysis and corporate interests", and an "extensive array of broadcast talent".
RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan also said that the new "dedicated UK channel" would be "promoting debate and new ways of thinking about British issues".
But on the evidence of the first two nights' viewing at least, RT UK has failed to live up to its billing.
Kremlin agenda
First, there were not five hours of special UK programming as appeared to have been promised. Instead, what viewers got was a half-hour sequence of reports and interviews repeated throughout each evening mixed in with established shows from RT's main international stream and RT America. These included the Keiser Report, Peter Lavelle's CrossTalk and Abby Martin's Breaking the Set.
Second, far from bringing new perspectives to the UK media scene, many of RT UK's reports on the first two evenings were based on hand-me-down newspaper articles - a story about UK arms sales to Qatar from The Guardian, an Independent report about "breadline Britain" and a controversy about a memorial to murdered British soldier Lee Rigby from The Evening Standard, to name but three.
As Dominic Lawson observed in The Sunday Times, RT's take on modern Britain tends to be a "diet of unremitting sourness". It also tends to focus on issues close to the Kremlin's heart - the possible break-up of Britain and the evils of fracking (a threat to Russia's energy superpower status) both featured in RT UK's debut broadcasts.
RT UK's claim to offer an "extensive array of broadcast talent" was also open to question. Most of the reporters on view on the first two evenings appeared to be young people making their first faltering steps in mainstream broadcast journalism, with some struggling to find their feet.
"Do you believe you can actually gain equality now? I mean would it happen with further devolved powers or would it come with actually declaring a Welsh state?" Laura Burdon-Manley asked Leanne Wood, leader of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru.
In July, one of RT's most experienced UK reporters Sara Firth left the station over its coverage of the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 in insurgent-controlled east Ukraine.
Anchor Bill Dod is an RT stalwart, who previously worked in regional and corporate TV, and briefly presented a daytime quiz show on the BBC in the mid-1990s.
Lack of debate
As for debate, this is mainly conspicuous by its absence on RT. A report on fracking featured anti-capitalist activist George Barda denouncing the technology's "inherent danger", but there was no industry expert or fracking advocate on hand to put an alternative viewpoint.
Even when there were multiple commentators, this did not tend to mean multiple opinions. Maverick financial commentator Max Keiser railed about how NHS "privatisation" was "killing people", while his two guests on the Keiser Report murmured their agreement.
The following evening Peter Lavelle and his three guests on CrossTalk competed in their adulation of President Vladimir Putin.
"Putin represents his people, that's why they love him," declared Alexander Clackson of the Global Political Insight think-tank.
"What a wonderful summation," Lavelle said in response.
"Minnow"
RT UK's launch set alarm bells ringing in some sections of the British media about the Kremlin extending its soft power.
"The battle for the hearts and minds of the global television news audience has entered a new phase with the launch of a dedicated UK version of the Kremlin-backed 24-hour news channel, RT," The Guardian grandly stated.
Oliver Kamm in The Times was even more concerned, urging UK media regulator Ofcom to "rigorously apply its own code to this den of deceivers".
RT has already been twice found to be in breach of the UK broadcasting code. According to The Guardian, several more Ofcom investigations into it are ongoing.
But the RT UK launch was not the big media event promised by the fanfare and the channel's reach does not match its lofty pretensions.
As Lawson noted, its daily audience is less than 90,000, which is smaller than that of minor channels, such as Zing, Viva and Rishtey.
RT "presents itself as uniquely influential", said Lawson, "when in fact it is a media minnow".