Margarita Simonyan, redactor-in-chief of RT

Last updated Sep 4, 2019

Margarita Simonyan was born on April 6, 1980 in Krasnodar. Since the launch, in 2005, of the first Russian television news station that broadcasts 24/24 in English, Russia Today (today: RT), Simonyan holds the position of editor-in-chief. Since November 2014 she is also editor-in-chief of the Sputnik agency, affiliated with the International Information Agency “Rossia segodnea”.

From April 2011 she moderated the program “What is happening?” («Что происходит?») At the REN TV station. The show was harshly criticized by the TV commentator from “Kommersant” newspaper Arina Borodina. In one article she described the show was “made in the style of Soviet propaganda,” whose protagonists are mostly bad Georgians and very bad Americans”. A similar appreciation of the show “What’s going on?” was also given by the critic of gazeta.ru Slava Taroshin. In his opinion, the performance of Margarita Simonyan is “in a well-known Soviet style:” on the other hand, in the US, African-Americans are beaten”.

TV journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza-senior has repeatedly criticized the working methods of the RT station, whose chief-in-editor is Simonyan and the show “The ladies of iron” («Железные леди»), broadcast on NTV, which was moderated by Simonyan and Tina Kandelaki in 2013. In 2014 Simonyan was decorated with the 4th degree Order for merits in front of the country – “for objectivity in the reflection of events in Crimeea”. The decree was not published, and the Kremlin press service announced that the ceremony was closed. In May 2016, Margarita Simonyan was included in the sanctions list of Ukraine by the president Petro Poroshenko and was prohibited from entering the country.

Relevant sources:

1. https://www.svoboda.org/a/29178682.html

2. https://gradator.ru/news/society/2499.html

3. https://belsat.eu/ru/programs/ukraina-vvela-sanktsii-protiv-russia-today/

4. https://compromat.ws/margarita-simonyan-obidelas-na-francuzskie-vlasti-za-obvineniya-v-propagande-3-primera-fejkov-rt-i-sputnik-o-francii/

Propaganda