Margarita Simonyan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margarita Simonyan (Russian: Маргари́та Симо́новна Симонья́н) (born 6 April 1980 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian journalist of Armenian descent. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the English-language, autonomous non-profit, government-funded[1] global multilingual television news network RT (formerly "Russia Today").[2][3][4]

Simonyan was born in Krasnodar, Russia, just northeast of the Black Sea. She is from a working class family and decided at an early age she wanted to become a journalist. She first worked for the local newspaper, and then for a local television station while studying journalism at Kuban State University.[5]

Simonyan spent a year in Bristol, New Hampshire in a student exchange program visit.[4] She says during that time she discovered Russians and Americans "are so much alike in terms of culture, in terms of family values, ways of life, reactions, sense of humor".[5][6]

Simonyan covered the Second Chechen War and serious flooding in Russia's south for her local television station, receiving an award for "professional courage". In 2002, she became a regional correspondent for Russia's national Rossiya television channel and covered the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis.[7] Simonyan, one of the first journalists to arrive at the scene, witnessed the killing of 334, 186 of them children. She told an interviewer "It was the worst thing that ever happened to me," and that she cried frequently while trying to write about it. She then moved to Moscow and joined Rossiya's pool of Kremlin reporters.[5][6]

She was the first Vice-President of the Russian National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters and a member of The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. In 2010 her first book, “Heading to Moscow!” was published.[4][8]

Simonyan was only 25 when appointed editor-in-chief in 2005, but had been working in journalism since she was 18.[9] Some sources describe her as a Kremlin loyalist[10] who is close to the Putin regime.[11][12][13][14] She admits that Vladimir Putin once sent her flowers,[9] Though when asked about the flowers incident Simonyan played it down "At a press conference, where President Putin was talking with the President of Tajikistan. It was my twenty-fifth birthday, which is a special anniversary. The other journalists were talking about it, the President heard them, and that was how I received the flowers. It was very spontaneous. I don’t think that you can call it a presidential high regard".[15] Simonyan has explained to reporters that after the fall of the Soviet Union many older Soviet journalists were not wanted by new media enterprises which preferred less experienced young journalists, thus the youth of most of the staffers.[6][9]

RT started broadcasting on 10 December 2005 with a staff of 300 journalists, including approximately 70 from outside Russia.[16] Simonyan frequently addresses media questions about RT's journalistic and political stands. At its launch, Simonyan stated that RT's intent was to have a "professional format" like the BBC, CNN and Euronews that would "reflect Russia's opinion of the world" and present a "more balanced picture" of Russia.[17] She also told a reporter that the government would not dictate content and "Censorship by government in this country is prohibited by the constitution."[18] She later told the Moscow Times that RT started to grow once it became provocative and that controversy was vital to the station. She said that RT's task was not to polish Moscow's reputation.[19]

She discussed her views of RT's coverage of the 2008 South Ossetia war, where Russia backed South Ossetia against the country of Georgia, with the Washington Times. She stated that among English speaking channels, only RT was giving the South Ossetian side of the story. She rejected the allegation of Will Dunbar, an RT correspondent who left after alleging RT was downplaying Russian bombing raids, and denied his claims of censorship. She stated that compared to some other stations, "We are not making a secret out of the fact that we are a Russian station, and, of course, we see the world from a Russian point of view. We are being much more honest in that sense."[6]

1. ^James Painter, The boom in counter-hegemonic news channels: a case study of Telesur, (undated, circa 2006), Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.
2. ^Is RT state-run?, Rt.com website, June 16, 2011.
3. ^"Viruses Penetrated Image of Russia". Kommersant. 13 December 2005. Retrieved 4 December 2011. 
4. ^ abcMargarita Simonyan biography, NewsExchange.org, accessed September 20, 2012.
5. ^ abcIoffe, Julia (September / October 2010). "What is Russia Today?". Columbia Journalism Review. 
6. ^ abcdRowland, Kara (Monday, October 27, 2008). "Russia Today: Youth served". The Washington Times. 
7. ^Zagorodnov, Artem (September 25, 2008). "Today's woman who needs to be heard". The Moscow Times. 
8. ^Margarita Simonyan book event photographs, Ria Novosti media library.
9. ^ abcStephen Heyman, A Voice of Mother Russia, in English, New York Times, May 18, 2008.
10. ^Elder, Miriam (25 January 2012). "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's TV show to be aired on Russian channel". The Guardian. 
11. ^Barry and Schwirtz, Ellen and Michael (May 6, 2012). "Arrests and Violence at Overflowing Rally in Moscow". NYT. 
12. ^Ioffe, Julia (September / October 2010). "What is Russia Today?". Columbia Journalism Review. 
13. ^Walker, Shaun (14 December 2011). "Why the Russian revolution is being televised at last". 
14. ^Osborn, Andrew (August 16, 2005). "Russia's 'CNN' wants to tell it like it is". The Age. 
15. ^Russia Today is the face of Russia today (interview with Margarita Simonyanpassportmagazine.ru January 2007
16. ^Julian Evans, Spinning Russia, Foreign Policy, December 1, 2005.
17. ^RIA Novosti launches a TV channel, Russia Today, RIA Novosti, June 7, 2005.
18. ^Beth Knobel "Russian News, English Accent: New Kremlin Show Spins Russia Westward", CBS News, 12 December 2005
19. ^Russia Today courts viewers with controversy. The Moscow Times. March 23, 2010.