RT Chief Editor on Bullying: The More They Pick on Us the More Publicity We Get

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said that constant attacks on the network from Western mainstream media are good for publicity, as they help to increase the channel's audience.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Western attacks on the RT news network are good for its publicity, editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said Saturday in an interview to a Russian television channel.

"The more they pick on us the more publicity we get and the more people ask themselves: What did they do wrong? What if I go and see for myself?" Simonyan said in an excerpt from the interview, to be aired by NTV on Monday night.

She said RT dominated US media headlines during last year’s presidential elections. "There was hardly any outlet that did not throw mud at us. It’s election time in France and the story is repeating itself. We are the main heroes again."

She accused the West of trying to gag the channel by passing regulations and even pressuring Google into curbing the circulation of links to RT stories.

The European Parliament passed a resolution last November where it described the RT as a threat to Europe’s unity and drew a parallel between it and propaganda disseminated by Daesh, a terrorist group outlawed in Europe, Russia and many other countries.

In a comment on the EP motion, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the channel for doing a good job and said the resolution showed that the Western concept of democracy was apparently degrading.

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