Journalist Liz Wahl, who has resigned from the channel Russia Today on March 6, said she made the decision after words “Russian intervention” were cut off from her interview. She stated this in an interview to British TV channel ITV.
Wahl explained that she made a decision after “propagandist nature” of state sponsored Russia Today “came out it in full force”. Journalist told how she interviewed former U.S. Congressman and mentioned in one of the questions words “Russian intervention”. Before the release of the interview on air these words were cut. Moreover, after the interview next story on air was about the entire Ukrainian opposition, who were represented as “fascists” and “neo-Nazis”.
Liz Wohl said that she appealed to the management of channel RT America, where she worked, and said she does not agree with such assessments, and that she does not like censoring of the interview. She explained that the day was crucial for her. She decided that viewers and people need to know what this broadcaster actually is. ”
Liz Wahl announced her resignation live at the end of her news broadcast on RT. She said that she could not continue to cooperate with the channel, which is funded by the Russian government and ” whitewashes Putin’s actions”. Earlier, another leading RT presenter Abby Martin during broadcast of Breaking the Set program criticized “military occupation” of Ukraine by Russian authorities
RT management has criticized actions of Liz Wohl and called them self-PR: “Usually, if a journalist does not agree with the position of its editorial board, he addresses their complaints to the editor and if the problem can not be resolved, leaves professionally .” The broadcaster said that Martin’s performance was hailed by Western media ” as an act of defiance, and became a sensation and a tempting role model”. Meanwhile, RT stressed, that nobody paid attention to Martin’s criticism of “U.S. military intervention”, though she expressed her opinion many times during the program broadcast.
Broadcaster Russia Today was established in 2005 and is funded from the state budget. The main objective is to promote position of Russian authorities abroad. Margarita Simonyan manages the company. She was recently appointed as chief editor of the news agency “Russia Today”, created on the basis of RIA Novosti news agency. Director of the “Russia Today” is a well-known Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselev.
Based on: Lenta.ru.
