Russian Censorship ?

[modeller]

I was wathching the Russian News Channel --RT when they were giving the news on Syria . They were interviewing a person in the USA who was repeating the same line from Moscow and Assad that the rebels were terrorists and supported by the West however suddenly he said
" however unfortunately Russia and China are responsible for ............."
and that's as far as he got the sound was cut off followed by the vision.

The commentator said " Ah we have lost the connection we hope to get it back later " . Surprise , surprise ! They never did .

Whilst some programmes on RT are well worth watching it is loaded with propaganda.

[youngmafbog]

And you are surprised by this ?

I bet Noo labour would have loved to have that facility.

[Gromit]

You don't think the British Television media follow the Government line?

Have you not noticed how the Arab Spring was reported? In Libya they were freedom fighters, in Bahrain they were terrorists. We do the same thing as the Russians all the time. Syria our not our friends so the protests are legitimised. Bahrain and Saudi are our friends, so any anti Government protests are a minority and terrorists.

Have you ever wondered where the guns and tanks the Syrian Rebels have at their disposal are coming from? The suggestion that it is from the West is not going to be far wrong.

[anotheoldgit]

I sometimes think that some of the news section members on AnswerBank, either live or would like to live in Russia.

[ichkeria]

That's interesting modeller. A few years ago when the Russia-Georgia war was on they had a freelance reporter in Tbilisi who had strict guidelines on what he could say. When he objected to this he had no alternative but to resign. He ended up on Sky News (can't remember his name). When I tried to point this out on their website forum my post was censored (I later received an email apology from them!!)
The other week they reported on Julian Assange's speech live from just inside the Ecuadorean embassy, At the end, to his credit, Assange started criticising Russia's government for its curbs on free speech which must have been embarrassing for them as they probably thought he was "safe" :-)
As you say, they do some interesting stuff - mainly travelogues and history, but generally it's open season on "the west" and any criticism of their own president is off-limits.
What they are useful for is when some big event happens in Russia (usually a disaster of some sort) and then there's naturally lots of coverage.

[ichkeria]

I don't think your criticism of the British coverage of the Arab Spring is at all fair Gromit. There was a lot of coverage of the Bahrain uprising and I well remember the protesters being described in pretty much the same vein as those in Libya etc.
RT's coverage of the Libya uprising was laughable. They had a French reporter holed up in a hotel in Tripoli who claimed his hotel was being attacked by NATO warplanes. His opinions were never questioned by the station (along the lines of "you are cowering under the bed in a hotel room - how on earth can you tell these are NATO planes?") It turned out that they were shells coming from Gaddafi's troops after all. Of course, there was no apology for this from the station that I am aware of.

[VictorMildew]

How do you know that they didn't regain the connection? Did you keep watching it non stop for about the next ten hours?
Soooooo suspicious, just like those Commie chaps you're moaning about.

[Gromit]

Ichkeria
Here is the Daily Telegraph's coverage in photos of the events in Bahrain.
The pro democracy demonstrators are referred to thoughout as Anti-Government Protestors, not rebels or freedom fighters. The caption refers to restoring security. They don't call it that when the Syrian Government restores security.

http://www.telegraph....restore-security.html

I assert again, the two are very differently reported by our media, reflecting the Foreign Office's view.

[ichkeria]

Ah well, the Daily Telegraph. :-)
I'm not prepared to stand up for every media outlet in Britain as being fab, but in attempting to at least compare like with like I was citing my experience of another "state" TV channel.
I used to watch RT a lot until I got fed up with it - I think you have to see how not to do it in order really to appreciate the better coverage elsewhere.

As for VictorMildew's stereotyping of critics of the Kremlin as being anti "Commie" it's worth reflecting that the Conservative party recently set up a pro-Kremlin schmoozefest called "Conservative Friends of Russia" and it's the Conservative Party which sits with Putin's United Russia in the Council of Europe. One of Putin's biggest cheerleaders is the ultra-right wing historian John Laughland, a man who counts among his other heroes Slobodan Milosevic. While one of his most outspoken critics is Labour's Denis McShane. Time to pack those old Soviet symbols in the attic I think :-)

[modeller]

Victor I waited for your predictable response:
#How do you know that they didn't regain the connection? Did you keep watching it non stop for about the next ten hours? #

The answer is I did keep it on because I have two TVs in the room so I can watch two programmes at the same time if I have a particular interest .

Unless of course, as no doubt you would suggest , it was connected well after midnight.

[modeller]

Just as a point of interest my favourite news channel is Aljazeera .
Our BBC News channel is too sport orientated for my liking.

[ichkeria]

Al Jazeera is my favourite channel also. My main criticism of BBC News is that it tends to cover one story ad nauseam.