TASS, July 21. Russia pursues disinformation campaigns and seeks political influence particularly through operation of RT channel and Sputnik news agency, claims the report drafted by the British Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee and published on Tuesday.
"Russia’s promotion of disinformation and its attempts at broader political influenceoverseas have been widely reported. Examples include: use of state-owned traditional media: open source studies have shown serious distortions in the coverage provided by Russian state-owned international broadcasters such as RT and Sputnik," the report reads. Moreover, the document notes the committee points to the use of bots and trolls in social media, "hack and leak" operations and "real life political interference."
Last July, Ofcom, the British media regulator, fined Russia’s RT 200,000 pounds ($235,000), claiming that it violated the rules of impartiality and accuracy in a number of reports and programs covering the poisoning of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury as well as the armed conflict in Syria. In March 2020, London’s High Court of Justice dismissed RT’s demand to recognize the fine unlawful and the channel’s claims that impartiality would contradict the principle of free expression of opinions.