Russia Today Reporter: The Invasion of the Crimea Is Wrong
Russia: Okay We're Sending You to the Crimea

I don't know if this story would be a story at all without the epilogue. A Russia Today reporter (well, "presenter") strongly criticized Russia's "uncontested arrival" into the Crimea.

This isn't such a huge deal because Russia Today is the English-language propaganda arm of Russia. It's not primarily for broadcast into Russia, but intended as an arm of pro-Russia indoctrination for areas of the English-speaking world that don't receive the New York Times.

A bit of background on the station, and the reporter:

The English-language Russia Today is widely perceived as the voice of the Kremlin, with Reporters Without Borders describing it as a "step of the state to control information."

It is often anti-American in its coverage and has been accused of ignoring a number of human rights abuses in the country, as well as controversial issues such as the prison sentences given to punk ban[d] Pussy Riot.

Her bold statement contrasted with the station's usual coverage of the Ukrainian crisis, which broadly reflects Moscow’s position.

In its reports it has described new Ukranian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk as "self-imposed" and is sympathetic to the Russian-backed ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.

Miss Martin, who has previously labelled the US government's version of 9/11 as "propaganda", criticised the coverage of the escalating crisis from all sides of the media spectrum as "disappointing.. and rife with misinformation".

But even a dummy like Martin understands that the Crimean invasion is wrong.

So here's the epilogue. Here's what Russia Today says about her off-message messaging:

"We respect her views, and the views of all our journalists, presenters and program hosts, and there will be absolutely no reprimands made against Ms. Martin. "In her comment Ms. Martin also noted that she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea. As such we’ll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story."

Miss Martin however told the Telegraph: "I am not going to Crimea despite the statement RT has made."

By the way, Time Magazine just reported that "not only would Russia never invade Crimea, it would also never send a reporter to a warzone just for criticizing Russia."

And then they won a Peabody.

posted by Ace at 03:04 PM

| Access Comments