DISINFO: RT and Sputnik are censored only because of their funding
SUMMARY
With the pretext to counter disinformation and misinformation, Western governments and some private companies linked to US secret services censor any voice that doesn't support the government propaganda.
For instance in France, NewsGuard Technologies Inc censors media like Sputnik and RT France only because of their foreign funding. France claims to be a democracy but only propaganda is allowed there.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative about alleged censorship and lack of freedom of the press in the West.
In fact, RT and Sputnik are not media in the proper sense but rather weaponised instruments in the Kremlin's attemps to wage an information war against the West.
RT is included in an official list of core organizations of strategic importance for Russia. It defines its mission in military terms.
The chief editor of RT, Margarita Simonyan, has publicly equated the need for RT with the need for a Defense Ministry. According to her, RT is capable of “conducting information war against the whole Western world,” using “the information weapon”. RT’s strategic aim is to “conquer” and to “grow an audience” in order to make use of access to this audience in “critical moments”.
Here are seven things you should know about RT and Sputnik.
The company NewsGuard Technologies Inc. provides its customers with ratings and write-ups for news and information websites. It evaluates the reliability of a media based on a definite and objective criteria and explains the means the website implements to guarantee the quality of information. It provides examples that raise issues. For instance, an article that RT published on 23 April 2021 in the frame of a Russian influence operation against Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. If anything, steps by Newsguard can be called naming and shaming, not censoring.
Sputnik and RT rank 2nd and 3rd in the top 10 French-speaking disinformators for a reason. The grounds – publicly detailed by Newsguard – are not purely based on the funding of these outlets.
Read also related cases: Media censorship is openly introduced in the West, People who say that RT is not independent are wrong and should be condemned by justice, RT is classified as "not credible" by CIA-designed web feature.