Viewers turned to the Russian broadcaster after growing tired of “years of lies” by Western media, Margarita Simonyan has said.
Years of “lies” by Western broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC drove audiences to RT in search of an alternative source of information, Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has said.
Speaking in an interview with the Chinese online news and analysis portal Guancha aired on Tuesday, Simonyan was asked how RT had grown into one of the world’s leading and most influential media outlets.
Western media, including the BBC and CNN, “lied to everyone for so many years that when someone appeared who told the truth and offered another point of view, we immediately gained a huge audience,” she told the program MindStream. “People had simply grown tired of them and came to us.”
Simonyan recalled that renowned Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica said in an interview shortly after RT International launched over 20 years ago that he had stopped watching CNN and the BBC and switched to RT instead.
“That’s an example of the kind of audience that had been waiting for a different source of information,” she said. “Not the brainwashing that the BBC and CNN had subjected people to for decades, but something fresh, something new, a different point of view.”
Simonyan argued that audiences cared less about where information came from than whether they believed it was truthful, adding that RT “never lie[s].”
Western politicians and media outlets have repeatedly complained that despite efforts to suppress RT, its audience has continued to expand, Simonyan noted.
“We were cut off everywhere in the so-called Western world… As a result, our audience only grew.”
RT’s measurable views doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to Simonyan, who said the broadcaster had not altered its editorial approach in response to the restrictions.
“We told the truth, and we continue to tell the truth. We have always told the truth,” she said.
RT has been repeatedly targeted with sanctions by numerous Western actors, with the years-long campaign against the network intensifying after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the network and its staff have been hit with more than 110 sanctions, along with asset freezes and other restrictions in recent years.
I switched to RT during Cvd – the MSM lied and lied and lied during cvd, it was so obvious that cvd was a hoax and ‘something else was going on’ – and RT did tell the truth too. RT helped me not get jabbed and now, with so many dead and injured friends and family I’m grateful.
Local Headline:
“Stuff (formerly Fairfax Media) and New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) behind success of the Daily Telegrah New Zealand (DTNZ)!” , the ONLY press agency IN THE WORLD that provides a totally FREE, uncensored, anonymous, non-subsibscribed, non-ID, comment section! Prove me wrong.
The NZ lying MSM propaganda press landscape is dominated by two major conglomerates: Stuff and NZME. Stuff controls approximately 50% of daily newspapers, owning The Press (Christchurch), Otago Daily Times (Dunedin), Waikato Times, Bay of Plenty Times, Hawke’s Bay Today and other coarse toilet papers.
NZME owns The New Zealand Herald (Auckland), The Dominion Post (Wellington), The Post (Hamilton), and Rotorua Daily Post, same grit.
Then there are some local ‘community’ rags.
And then there is the slime oozing out online by scoop and onljne stuff.
If ppl think of “hte Waikato Local, Northern Outlook, The Christchurch Mail, The Sun, Katikati Advertiser, Kapiti News, Whanganui Midweek, Hastings Leader, ect. …all owned and controlled by the 2 govt. subsidized controllers of public opinion: Stuff and NZME. BTW: Here you can see how sh*tpaper performs: in November 2024 NZME proposed closing 14 of their local rags due to declining profitability (i.e.= ppl had enough of Kindergarten churnalism and propaganda slop.
Outstanding is Daily Telegraph New Zealand (DTNZ). It is a TOTALLY INDEPEMDENT, not-for-profit news website launched in October 2021. tI distinguishes itself in the New Zealand media landscape by offering a totally anonymous, free, non-subscription, non-ID, and non-email required comment section, a feature explicitly highlighted in its editorial policy. Thy refuse government funding and rely on donations. That is why you need to hit :
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/announcements/donations-thank-you/
And no, I am NOT connected in any shape of form to DTNZ.
I haven’t watched any BBC or CNN garbage for decades, but I haven’t turned to RT either. It’s getting very difficult to find balanced reporting that gives both sides of an issue allowing the reader/watcher to make their own conclusions. Asia Times used to be good, but quite a few of their reporters ended up dead and the channel has been brought out by mainstream media types. During the US vs Afghan War the used to and interview leaders from both sides of the conflict – it was great reporting.
Used to like RT but these days its looking more and more, like its going down the same path as the Guardian. Lots of MSM media creep, with so called journo’s who used to inhabit those spaces moving across and bringing their “opinions” with them. The fact too, you are have little choice but to use Google who censor comment,s tell you everything you need to know.
RT is a good read, I would never go to the BBC or CNN, CLOWN NEWS.
In the world where we’re told “what we need to know”.
Found it near impossible to download and install RT app on Android TV, was removed from G app store sometime after 2022.
RT TV is not as good as web page, though still entertaining.
Took a bit of doing, though managed to get RT app working on Android TV.
Not easy for most people to do.
You need download APK by PC/ copy to USB stick/ plug into TV/ then install using TVs installer.
Version that seems to work best is RT News for TV 2.8.5.
Good Luck.
I never use apps or even bluetooth larda*se technology.
Ditch your phone.
HDMI cable from laptop to TV/monitor, sweet.