Russia Today Reporter Quits Over Untruthful Reporting Of MH17 Coverage

A reporter for a global Russian TV channel resigned over what she called the Kremlin-funded station's "disregard for the facts" in its coverage of the downing of the Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine.

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A Russia Today reporter quit Friday, furious over the way the network covered the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash.

Sara Firth, who worked at Russia Today for five years, described the channel’s reporting of the crash in which 298 people were killed, including a former BBC journalist, as the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.

theguardian.com

Sara Firth, based in London, quit Friday morning after five years with Moscow-based RT. After tweeting her departure, she told the Press Gazette Thursday's coverage was "the straw that broke the camel's back for me."

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RT has been accused of biased reporting, particularly since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis last year.

"RT is not about the truth," Wahl said in a March CNN interview after her exit from the network. "It's about promoting a Putinist agenda. It's also about bashing America."

Firth told the Press Gazette hours later that the RT style manual tells the editorial staff to cast blame on Ukraine, or any other factor, instead of Russia. "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."

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Firth claimed the news organization has prompted Russian propaganda for years. The network uses young, obedient reporters for big, controversial stories — the less-experienced journalists are more likely to stay on message, she said. "The second you start to question or report honestly then you're a problem."

In March a US-based presenter with RT, Liz Wahl, announced during a live broadcast that she was quitting over the channel's "whitewashing" of Kremlin's actions on the Crimean peninsula. At the time RT described Wahl's resignation as an act of self-promotion.

Firth is the second RT staffer to resign this year. In March, Washington-based anchor Liz Wahl quit on the air, saying the station "whitewashes the actions of Putin" and asks her to "promote Russian foreign policy."

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The RT press office issued the following statement: “We were not surprised by Sara Firth’s decision to leave RT after five years as a Moscow and London correspondent, as she has recently informed us that she was likely to take an offer from another firm.

theguardian.com

“In our coverage, RT, unlike the rest of the media, did not draw conclusions before the official investigation has even begun. We show all sides of the story, even if everyone else has already decided which side is to blame.”

theguardian.com

RT, formerly Russia Today, began broadcasting in English in 2005, and then added coverage in Spanish and Arabic. The station says it "provides an alternative perspective on major global events, and acquaints international audience with the Russian viewpoint." Critics call it a mouthpiece for Putin and the Kremlin.

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