Newsreader quits Russia Today ‘propaganda’ channel on ‘principle’ amid Ukraine invasion
A newsreader has quit the Kremlin-backed RT channel following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Kevin Owen, who has previously fronted news broadcasts for BBC Wales and HTV Wales said he resigned “on principle”.
He has worked for RT, which was formerly known as Russia Today, for more than 15 years, after joining the Russian Government-funded channel in 2006.
“I resigned on principle,” the newsreader told WalesOnline. “I will very much miss the vast amount of very talented and kind colleagues and management who I had the pleasure of working with over many years.”
He resigned from his post as the main news anchor on the state-owned Russian news network on Monday. He said he has notified his employers of his intention to quit the role
Owen was awarded the prize of ‘News Anchor of the Year’ by the channel in 2008.
Broadcast regulator Ofcom has announced that it has launched 15 separate investigations into RT because of its news coverage of the war in Ukraine.
It has repeatedly echoed President Putin’s narrative of the invasion and has consistently referred to the invasion as a “special military operation”.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Culture Minister Tom Giffard MS has written to Ofcom to add his party’s voice to the chorus of criticising RT,
He accused the broadcaster of spreading disinformation, and being a “propaganda tool” for President Putin.
‘Scale and gravity’
Ofcom’s Chief Executive Dame Melanie Dawes said: “Given the scale and gravity of the crisis in Ukraine, audiences expect to be able to trust and rely on duly impartial broadcast news.
“When reporting on an armed conflict, we recognise it can be difficult for broadcasters to verify information and events, but it is imperative that they make every effort to do so. They must also explain clearly to audiences where there is uncertainty or where events are disputed.
“Supporting a fair and free media is central to Ofcom’s work. We take this responsibility – and our duty to protect audiences and uphold trust in news – extremely seriously. Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of our approach and fundamental to our democracy.
“Given the serious on-going situation in Ukraine, we will be concluding our investigations into RT as a matter of urgency.”
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Good for him
‘On principle’? 15 years? Behave. If he was happy to take the money from such a channel for that long, he has no principles, none whatsoever. The west has been full of useful idiots (hello Johnson, Farage, Hannan, et al) willing to help put forward the idea that Putin was somehow ok, this Kevin Owen was content to be amongst them for a decade and a half.
He must have felt ok when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, and how were his “principles” looking in 2014 when they invaded Crimea in southern Ukraine. People died in both invasions. It would seem his “principles ” kicked in, when the world finally stood up to Putin and took notice of the crimes he is committing, and his apologists in the west started to desert him.
RT has steadily been turning up the ‘fake-news’ content for years.
Yet now he suddenly notices the propaganda – what kept him?
RT has been taken off the air in the EU. Ofcom should be doing the same thing.
Trust in MSM is 29% in the USA. How much do Cymro trust, say, the BBC? The BBC is the arm of the UK Gov. All “world service” content can be subject to scrutiny. Fortunately, there is a glimmer of light in the US, where social media has blossomed due to You Tube censorship and you have Telegram, Odysee, Rumble, etc. Vast sections of the US public now look askance at headlines, due to such stuff as Russiagate, planned in part by ex British agents providing dirt which didn’t exist.Yet now MSM has forgotten the mud existed. The situation in… Read more »
I’m not defending MSM, but RT is controlled by a government that is committing war crimes. Now isn’t the time for whataboutisms.
Watching RT on the 📺 should be mandatory for all of us ……in Cymru 🏴
So we can see how fact can become fiction so easily
How skipping around the truth is so possible
What May happen to us if the Putin trolls we are currently reading 📖 on certain nation Cymru postings get their way
Why is this fake news, Kremlin propaganda channel still on the air in Britain?
Those of us old enough to remember 2003 might remember the ‘military action’ in Iraq. I don’t like RT, and I don’t agree with much said on it, especially recently. Within the last few years, I would say it has gone heavier on the ‘anti-woke’ right-wing agenda, and perhaps aims to attract an audience based on bigotry so they can stay for the Putinist propaganda. The Daily Mail and others of course do the exact same thing. But from an Ofcom point of view, its different because it’s TV rather than a newspaper, if that means anything in the 2020s.… Read more »
I remember the invasion of Iraq very well, and as far as I remember the only Media outlet that was defending the invasion was Fox News. You are right though about RT having an ‘anti-woke agenda’. George Galloway for example really has changed his tune over the last few years. He will try to justify Putin’s actions whilst calling Tony Blair a war criminal.