Russia Today

The way it was put to me - before the World Service was funded by the license fee - was that the Government decided where the World Service should broadcast (so that includes in what languages) but not what it should broadcast. Its the last bit that is crucial in this discussion but is the bit that those seeking to bracket the BBC in with Press TV or RT wilfully misrepresent so as to try and paint them as two sides of the same coin.

Has RT been kicked out of the White House Press Corps? The White House Correspondents Association is seperate from the White House and handles the logistical issues such as accreditation and access to the briefing room.

I was in DC last month (with my father who was being interviewed for a Discovery Channel Special) and many of the bus stops around Capitol Hill had advertisements for RT touting its Americanism and free speech.

That is indeed the fundamental difference. RT and Press TV are editorially controlled by the Russian and Iranian governments. the BBC World Service (and BBC News in general) really isn't. It's a crucial difference which RT and Press TV always try and bat away.

Now that the bulk of the World Service language services are not directly funded by government either - it's even more distanced from Whitehall and Westminster. (World 2020 stuff is being funded by the FCO I believe though)

Successive UK Governments have upheld the idea that the BBC working independently and ethically, in a free and impartial manner, is a very strong message that signals British values to the world.

WELL how did this get past people? RT news is off for Scheduled Maintenance from 9pm - 7am GMT ?

A; Why
B: how is it possible it can send that loop?

Those scheduled maintenance periods are as common as the pro-Putin packages.

Nothing unusual, it happens every so often.

See here from around February 2009: https://theident.gallery/player.php?id=RT-2008-SM-1

You learn something new everyday.

If you want the Russian version (I presume this is legit...)

Still it seems unusual for a channel to shut down for such a long time -especially during primetime. I’ve never seen that happen on any of the US news channels or frankly any basic cable channel.

The premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, Encore) and their multiplex channels sign off once a month usually at 4AM for two hours of calibration. Starz and Encore take all their channels off air at once for maintenance and actually put up some test patterns but the rest usually take two channels off the air at a time and put up a graphic.

When is 'primetime' in an international channel though?

Who knows - could be any number of reasons from upgrades to equipment, maintenance of production studios, scheduled air conditioning or power testing work in a studio or building without a backup - no idea...



Maintenance on a studio or gallery, or even an entire building, doesn't preclude broadcasting something later in the broadcast chain, either from a network playout/presentation area, or downstream via a router etc.

Mr Pootin [sic] installing a few secret mics