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The western mainstream media's quest to combat Orwellian-titled 'fake news,' has just been handed a defeat.
Russia's RT is investing $19 million in a French-language broadcast, adding to their English, Arabic, and Spanish broadcasts.
The Moscow Times reports:
The Russian state-owned satellite television network RT has been given an additional 1.22 billion rubles ($19 million) in order to start a French-language channel.
The additional funds were allocated in a draft for the 2017 state budget which was approved by the State Duma on Dec.7. This means a total of 18.74 billion rubles is earmarked for the satellite channel next year.
RT's intention to create a French-language channel was first revealed in 2014, when the project was projected to cost 1.4 billion rubles. Like RT America, the channel's main studio and its staff would be located in France, according to Chief Editor Margarita Simonyan.
So far, however, only the French-language RT website has been launched.
"The amount that we were given in 2014 was partially spent on the technical base of the French channel, but then due to the devaluation of the ruble the project was frozen," RT's press service told the RBC newspaper.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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