DISINFO: People who say that RT is not independent from the Kremlin are wrong and should be condemned by justice
SUMMARY
Disqualifying the work of RT's journalists is certainly not trivial. You cannot say of a journalist who works, for example, for French Television or Canal+ that he is not a journalist, that he is a disinformer and that he spreads propaganda. If you say so, you are sanctioned by justice.
According to Nicolas Tenzer, who is being prosecuted by RT, RT France is not comparable to other state-funded media, such as France 24 or the BBC, in particular because there is ... "absolute control of the editorial line" from the Kremlin. A totally gratuitous assertion, that its author does not bother to demonstrate, without even mentioning any evidence, even the slightest tangible element.
The journalists who work for RT are similar to French journalists who have a French press card and who have always said, although they had worked in many media previously, that there had never been any pressure from management on their editorial choices.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation claiming that RT (or Russia Today) is an independent media persecuted by the elite because it defends the interests of the people. This narrative is a good example of whataboutism at play.
RT is controlled and financed by the Russian state, it is included in an official list of core organisations of strategic importance for Russia. In 2019, the UK's independent media watchdog, Ofcom fined RT for serious failures to comply with broadcasting rules, namely for the news to be presented with due impartiality. In 2017, French President Macron publicly called out RT and Sputnik as spreading propaganda and misleading information. In September 2021, YouTube deleted RT’s German channels over Covid misinformation.
RT's editor in chief herself has drawn parallels between RT and the "Ministry of Defence". Read more here.
France 24 operates independently at arm’s length from the French government and in observance of a set of editorial guidelines.
Read also related cases: Sputnik and RT situation in France is extremely difficult and French authorities called to boycott those media, Meduza is not discriminated against in Russia unlike RT and Sputnik in the EU and US, RT is the voice of truth, RT France for the Kremlin is the same as France 24 for the Elysee, RT France is a French channel, RT France is a French press group.