"No other country in the world has opposed us and keeps on fighting us as strongly as Germany. But our German audience has been very grateful, as evidenced by the RT DE views on the website and on social networks, which we managed to achieve without launching the TV channel. We will do everything to ensure that our German audience is not disappointed," Margarita Simonyan, Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief, told RT.
RT DE will broadcast everywhere in Europe, including countries with large German-speaking audiences, such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The channel will air analytical program Fasbenders Woche hosted by German journalist Thomas Fasbender, culinary and political show Kartoffelmus hosted by RT DE reporter Zukaina Grunow, as well as other talk shows and documentaries.
"We have found that audiences in Germany are growing ever more interested in RT, and we are happy that now, instead of just reading our content online, they can watch it on TV. Our viewers also want to know what modern Russia is all about, what it looks like on the inside – and we will deliver that as well," said Dinara Toktosunova, CEO of RT DE Productions.
Dinara Toktosunova, CEO of RT DE Productions
© Photo : NIKITA LUENNEMANN
German media manager, producer and writer Oliver Brendel joined the RT DE team ahead of the launch.
The launch of RT channel in German will unlock access to differing points of view and objective information for European audiences in accordance with the universal principle of freedom of expression, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said.
"I think it's very good that Russia Today [RT] will now be in German, accessible to a large audience of German-speaking people around the world. They will be able to get other information, hear and compare different points of view," Matvienko told RT.
RT in German was launched in 2014 online and on social media. Currently, RT DE is number one among German-language media by Facebook interactions over the past 12 months, bypassing Bild, Spiegel, ZDF, Tagesschau, according to Crowdtangle.
The launch of RT DE has been surrounded by controversy in the European Union, with German media and politicians accusing the broadcaster of manipulations with facts targeting Germans of Russian origin. In August 2021, RT DE was refused a broadcasting license in Luxembourg after reportedly receiving a recommendation from the German authorities. In September, YouTube removed two RT DE channels without the right of recovery for alleged "violations of community rules."