l-r: Richard Gizbert, Peter Pomerantsev, Ben Judah and Misja Pekel

Who shot down MH17? For international TV channel Russia Today (RT), whose tag line is “Question More,” the truth has many faces. But is the Kremlin-backed channel’s post-modernist approach to news threatening to undermine empirical journalism? That was the subject of a panel Q&A following the UK premiere of Misja Pekel‘s film The World According to Russia Today on Friday 13 March at the Frontline Club. RT declined to participate in the discussion, though Frontline noted that the event was organised with the expectation of having an RT representative present to offer their own perspective of the film and its claims.

The discussion, chaired by Al Jazeera English Listening Post presenter Richard Gizbert, began by exploring claims in Pekel‘s film that the channel deliberately distorts key news relating to Russia: the Ukrainian revolution; the downing of MH17; the recent murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.

“Propaganda as we’ve known it seems to have morphed,” said Gizbert. “Rather than attacking a point and coming up with one single alternative narrative, often times the idea is to throw a bunch of stuff at the Western narrative and see what sticks. They use the channel in the same way as fighter pilots use flares – to distract and confuse any incoming flak.”

Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible – a book about working in Russian media – said Russian propagandists and military strategists had long used conspiracy theories as a device to confuse their enemies.

“The main principle is to disorganise the enemy by spreading confusion and conspiracies in any form,” he said. “It’s an old theory of propaganda – you do something to get viewers, the conspiracy theorists, the far-left viewers, then you seed disinformation when you need to.”

Ben Judah, author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In And Out Of Love With Vladimir Putin, said alternative narratives such as those championed by RT had taken on a life of their own online. By tapping into audiences sceptical of the official version of events, he said, the channel had begun to erode notions of a single, objective truth.

When an audience member posed a question about RT’s high ratings in America (the station is the second most popular foreign news channel, second only to BBC World), Richard Gizbert commented on Americans’ growing dissatisfaction with popular news channels since 9/11, and RT’s unmistakable image as a young company offering an aesthetic and content altogether different from the norm.

“Russia Today is beaming out into the West, and what it’s beaming out through its programming is this idea that there is no fundamental truth, that there is no such thing as news (…) RT is entering our self-doubt and that’s why it’s effective,” said Judah.

Dutch film-maker Pekel said he had set out wanting to explore whether this approach meant RT could be considered a journalistic channel.

“What caught my eye was that when it’s about Russia you don’t see any criticism from the channel itself (…) Maybe we have to ask the question of whether Russia Today is actually a journalistic channel.”

Some audience members questioned the film’s view of Russia Today, suggesting that the issues raised by Pekel are not unique to Russian media, but are evident in news reports by American channels like Fox News and ABC. Challenged by audience members over why the film included just one current RT employee, Pekel said many had not been granted permission from the channel’s Moscow head office to talk to him on camera.

“I personally wish there were more people from RT in the film. I agree that it would have been more balanced. But if we didn’t get the possibility I still think it’s an important film to make,” he said.

Watch and listen back below:

This screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Misja Pekel, writers Ben Judah and Peter Pomerantsev, and journalist Richard Gizbert.

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The rocket that shot down flight MH17 was actually intended for Vladimir Putin’s plane. That is, if we were to believe the headline Russia Today (RT) was running in the first hours after the tragedy. The disaster with the Malaysian Airlines flight wasn’t the first time the news channel stirred controversy with its reporting. In November of 2014, Ofcom gave RT a warning for impartial reporting on the uprising in Maidan Square in Kiev.

The channel was launched in 2005 under the name Russia Today to bring the Russian perspective on world events to a global audience. Almost ten years later, RT broadcasts in five languages and can be received almost all over the world. It is now the biggest news organisation on YouTube with 2 billion views, more then CNN and BBC together.

Its critics call it a bullhorn for Russian propaganda, RT claims only to show a different perspective on world events, and presents itself as an alternative to the mainstream media. In Misja Pekel’s The World According to Russia Today, current and former employees, journalists and media analysts dissect RT’s modus operandi. What is it like to work for the channel? How much influence does the Kremlin really have? And is it possible to discern between fact and opinion when Russian interests are at stake?

Directed by Misja Pekel
Duration: 40′
Year: 2015

The Panel:

Ben Judah is the author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In And Out Of Love With Vladimir Putin published by Yale University Press.

Peter Pomerantsev is an author, TV producer, and Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute. Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, his book about working in Russian media, was released by Faber in February. It has been short listed for the Pushkin House Award for Russia books, and was a BBC Book of the Week.

Richard Gizbert is a Canadian broadcast journalist. He is the presenter of the Listening Post on Al Jazeera English. Over the past 25 years, he has covered stories in more than 50 countries on five continents.