Ukraine Crimea Crisis: Does Russia Today Deliberately Court Controversy?

Russia Today news anchor Liz Wahl had seen enough of Vladimir Putin's trampling of Ukraine.

The broadcaster, whose grandparents fled from Soviet forces during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, announced her resignation live on the air at the end of a bulletin, citing "moral and ethical" challenges.

It was the second time this week one of RT's presenters had openly criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin after Washington-based Abby Martin, presenter of "Breaking the Set", condemned the situation in Ukraine.

Journalists traditionally levitate above the subjects they are disseminating, presenting an objective view of the issue at hand.

But this is not the first time the gaze of the world has been on RT.

Formation

Launched in 2005, RT is a 24-hour news station like Sky in Britain and CNN in the US.

It is however a non-profit organisation and funded by the Russian government through the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.

Its broadcasts are beamed into homes in more than 100 countries and it is the second most-watched foreign news network in America after BBC World Wide. It is also the third most watched news channel in Britain, after BBC News and Sky News.

Coverage

Before RT's launch, Vladimir Putin had seemingly grown tired of foreign news broadcasts. He told a rally in 2005: "I often watch foreign TV channels, and almost everywhere they are saying the same thing. All they can talk about is crisis and breakdown."

The network prides itself on offering a Russian perspective on global issues as well reporting on matters left alone by corporate networks.

It has been described as "counter-hegemonic" because it serves up a different news agenda to that of Western media including CNN and the BBC.

Its exponential growth has also lead to it being a direct competitor, and occasionally scourge, of Western outlets.

Notable contributors and guests

Over the years RT has attracted major political figures, from both the left and right, on its show to discuss themes that might be shunned by other parts of the media.

Controversial figures who have appeared on the network include George Galloway, Mahmoud Amadinejad, Bashar al-Assad and, perhaps obviously, Putin himself.

It has been criticised for giving a platform to some guests merely for the sake of being provocative, an accusation RT strongly denies.

Controversies and criticisms

Being an arms-length from the Kremlin has seen RT labelled as a mouth-piece for the Kremlin. Indeed, a Guardian newspaper article described RT's advertising campaign in Britain as an "ambitious attempt to create a new post-Soviet global propaganda empire".

It has also been reported that while features portraying sensitive Russian issues is allowed, direct criticism of Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is forbidden.

Commentators have also said that RT's editorial policy is deliberately skewed to being aggressively "anti-American".

Julian Assange

In April 2012, RT broadcasted the first episode of 'World Tomorrow', a news interview program hosted by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. His first guest was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a major coup for the network given the leader's reluctance to be interviewed.

Assange said that RT allowed guests to say things they "could not say on a mainstream TV network." but admitted if Wikileaks had published Russian data, his relationship with the network might become strained.