RT Reporter Resigns Over “Being Told To…Obscure The Truth” And Having To “Work For Putin”
Darren Smith
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A second reporter for the Russia backed television network RT (Formerly known as Russia Today) has resigned her position due to what she considered to be being required to obscure the truth and whitewash the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She made the announcement via a RT News Broadcast she anchored.
RT Reporter Sara Firth, based in London, resigned after five years with the network. She informed the publication Press Gazette the final straw came with a published report of the Malaysian Airlines crash in The Ukraine she considered to be evasive of the truth.
During the interview with Press Gazette, she reportedly stated that after the Thursday story:
Sara Firth
“I walked into the newsroom, and they were running an eyewitness account of God knows who the person was blaming the Ukrainian government, and it is such a volatile situation. It’s the level of disrespect for the facts that really bugs me. I couldn’t do it any more, We’re lying every single day … and finding sexier ways to do it.”
According to Sarah, the RT Style Manual for editorials states that reporters are to cast blame on Ukraine or any other factor causing the downing of the Malaysian airliner and not blame Russia. She stated further:
“It’s scary that it’s genuine RT guidance on how to do a story, and you have to believe it to succeed there. You stop believing that what they say is the way it is and you stop being useful to them.”
For its part RT issued a statement on the matter that it was not surprised by Sarah’s actions and that it was anticipated because she accepted a position with another news agency.
“Sara has declared that she chooses the truth; apparently we have different definitions of truth. We believe that truth is what our reporters see on the ground, with their own eyes, and not what’s printed in the morning London newspaper.”
The Russian Government, especially under the leadership of President Putin has demonstrated a systemic disregard for the tenets of objective reporting and has been accused of going to such lengths of having reporters and dissenters imprisoned and in a few cases reporters were murdered with some evidence linking these crimes to the government. The oppression of the free press is rife and presented to be under the auspices a credible source of news while at the same time presenting reporting favorable to the Russian government and its leadership. It is showing further that Russia is returning to the days of Radio Moscow and Pravda of the Soviet period of Russia, something President Putin has declared to be a system he favors and laments that its collapse was one of the worst events in Russian history.
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