Not content with banning RT in most Western countries nearly three years ago, the US and its allies have unveiled a new plan to bully the rest of the world into following suit.
When US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new “joint diplomatic campaign” which will be implemented jointly with Canada and the United Kingdom last week, clearly stated the objective of the initiative: “to rally allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by RT and other Russian disinformation and covert influence machines.”
Let us not fool ourselves: there is nothing diplomatic about this latest US effort to silence any voice that does not adhere to the narratives dictated by Washington and London about the world.
The aim of all media is to inform. All information has the potential to influence people. That is why the West as a whole has set out to reduce any potential influence that is not its own.
Helping hand
James Rubin, coordinator of the US State Department's Center for Global Engagement, explained how such a plan would work in an interview with his ex-wife, Christiane Amanpour, on CNN.
“Other countries will make decisions for themselves,” Of course, but the charitable, ever-benevolent, never-selfish American hand will be… “help other governments make their own decisions about how to deal with” RO
Ah, all those poor and unfortunate people. “other governments” who clearly cannot read, see, think or decide for themselves. They were waiting for Big Brother to help them.
What Rubin was actually doing was making RT – and by extension, all other independent voices in what is supposed to be a free and diverse global information space, reflecting a diverse, very complicated and multipolar world – into a scapegoat for much of the world’s declining acceptance of Washington’s foreign policies and the propaganda campaigns that accompany them.
As Rubin admitted during his press conference, “One of the reasons (…) why much of the world has not supported Ukraine as fully as one might think (…) is because of the broad reach of RT, where propaganda, disinformation and lies are spread to millions, if not billions of people around the world.”
Which countries refused to join the US and NATO in supporting the kyiv regime and the continued escalation of the conflict? In reality, most of the world, including geopolitical giants such as India and China, preferred to leave regional problems to the region in question.
As far as official positions are concerned, it is mainly about the billion members of NATO and their cohorts versus the other seven on our planet. And while not all citizens in those seven countries share the same opinion, neither do all citizens in the United States and other NATO countries.
However, due to decades of domination of the international news space by the American and European mainstream media (can you believe the BBC is over 100 years old?), many have been conditioned to think of the world – in the sense of who defines the global order, its rights and wrongs – as the United States and its vassal states, i.e. allies.
It is worth noting that Rubin specifically referred to Latin America, the Middle East and Africa as regions where RT must be stopped – in other words, the so-called Global South. What is it that is so worrying the US State Department in this regard?
RT's success is Western media's loss
The Western military, political and media establishments have been in a state of panic for some time now over the loss of the global information monopoly in general, and the growing reach and influence of RT in particular. The self-proclaimed champions of freedom of the press, speech and thought cannot stand any of the freethinking they campaigned for.
That is, parchment:
FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES, USA: “Washington is struggling to win the hearts and minds of the 'Global South', where Russian propaganda outlets are often more popular than Western media.”
NEWS OF THE WEEK: “…it is in the Global South that Russia has reaped the greatest benefits. The popularity of the Kremlin-controlled television network, Russia Today, is high…”
POLITICAL: “…many of the Kremlin-backed accounts – especially those of authoritative media outlets such as RT and Sputnik – have an outsized digital reach. Together, these companies have millions of followers in Europe, Latin America and Africa…”
ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE, UNITED KINGDOM: “Latin America has seen an increase in Russian information initiatives. As in the Middle East, Russia has a number of popular media channels, such as RT en Español, Sputnik Mundo and Sputnik Brasil, which have a large number of followers.”
CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, USA: “The presence and influence of Russian media outlets (in Latin America) are unparalleled… The reach of Russian technology has proven effective… Current affairs RT and Sputnik Mundo have become so mainstream in Latin America and the Caribbean that, in December 2022, RT in Spanish won three prestigious Mexican journalism awards for its coverage of the war in Ukraine.”
WILSON CENTER, USA: “Russia has successfully implemented long-term strategies to capture and influence intellectual elites in Latin America.”
ATLANTIC COUNCIL: “Russia has established a significant media and information presence throughout the (Latin American) region with Russia Today and Sputnik News.”
THE WORLD, SPAIN: “In addition to hybrid channels, (Russia) uses state-owned companies such as Russia Today, whose propaganda is successful in Latin America – the Spanish version of RT (…) is integrated into daily family life from Venezuela to Bolivia.”
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES, UNITED KINGDOM: “Egyptian media published headlines and reports verbatim from RT Arabic, (…) EU Reporter, an independent media outlet, reported that '“Russian media outlets such as RT Arabic and Sputnik are extremely popular, and RT Arabic has become one of the most trafficked news websites in the country.”
FOREIGN POLICY:“RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic emerged as important sources of legitimate regional news in the Middle East.”
JOSEP BORRELL, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EU FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY: “When you go to some African countries and you see people supporting Putin, supporting what Putin is doing in Donbass, saying that Putin has saved Donbass, now he will come to Africa and save us.”
ABC, SPAIN: “The Kremlin has tried to increase its influence in the media through Russia Today and Sputnik News. It has also signed partnership agreements with local media outlets, hiring African journalists and activists while producing news in Arabic, English or French to win the support of the African population.”
Thank you, thank you very much.
Exporting censorship
Since launching RT in 2005, our journalists have brought to light countless stories and viewpoints that are not allowed in mainstream Western media. We have built a massive global audience and earned the trust of viewers and readers around the world.
But despite Western elites' claims to the contrary, any voice that does not fit into the narrow echo chamber they have created to accommodate supposedly free discourse is considered intrinsically illegitimate and must therefore be silenced.
So, after having kicked RT’s official channels off Western airwaves and digital platforms, they now want – or rather need and must – export their particular brand of censorship globally. They are pledging to launch a coordinated campaign to force other nations to follow suit, all so that the West can regain its monopoly on information. “Interrupting activities (RT)” Everywhere. It is not enough for them to insulate their own people from inconvenient facts and alternative viewpoints. They have the megalomania and audacity to say that no one in the world should listen to them either.
This is especially so in countries of the Global South, those that the United States has grown accustomed to sponsoring, manipulating, dominating, undermining and overthrowing regimes unsuitable for them, and directly controlling them in any way possible, over the past century.
Welcome to neocolonialism, version 2024.
Government officials have already targeted Silicon Valley’s wunderkinds – the tech giants that are always eager to curry political favor to stay on the lax side of corporate regulation. Meta, which blocked access to RT’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the EU in 2022, has overnight removed RT from its platforms, entirely and worldwide.
YouTube removed RT's record-breaking channels everywhere that same year, but Google's parent company Alphabet had already worked to “declassify” RT and Sputnik in Google searches in 2017.
After all, “RT is the main recommended source for news on the chemical weapons attack in Douma, the Skripal poisoning and the Syrian White Helmets.” wrote the Atlantic Council in 2018. In 2019, “Bild ran a test and entered the search for ‘Ukraine’ into Google News. Once again, among the top ten articles were three from RT Deutsch and Contra Magazin.” When people were looking for news, they went to RT.
This could not be tolerated.
A quick aside: despite all the claims by the Americans and the British about RT's alleged attempts to… “sow discord” In their societies, the network should be praised for bringing people together. In the United States, where political bipartisanship is an almost extinct species, the Biden administration's current efforts have the full backing of Fiona Hill of Donald Trump's National Security Council, who argued that “There must be concerted action against RT.” In the UK, newly elected Labour leaders have fully adopted the anti-RT playbook of their Conservative predecessors.
He's not going to leave
Let me be clear: RT is not going anywhere, neither in the West nor in the Global South. Our journalists will continue to do their work. We will continue to find ways to make our voices heard. Our audiences will continue to “of millions, if not billions, of people around the world” Expect nothing less from us. This is our duty to the global community.
As for the global community, what is its position on this new US-led campaign?
The Hindu, one of India's leading newspapers, reported That already “US officials have spoken to the (Indian) External Affairs Ministry about the possibility of joining forces against what they call ‘Russian disinformation,’ by revoking accreditations and designating (RT) journalists under the ‘Foreign Missions Act.’ But while the ministry has been silent on the issue, government officials said the sanctions debate is not relevant to India, while a former diplomat said banning the media outlets showed a ‘double standard’ by Western countries… One official said the matter is ‘not relevant’ to India, noting that India does not follow unilateral sanctions that are not approved by the United Nations.”
We are confident that the rest of the truly independent world will follow the same example.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
