RT DE looks back on five – at times long – years of critical reporting on the Corona crisis. At the beginning of the year 2020, the first reports of a mysterious illness, allegedly breaking out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, reached us: “COVID-19”. The confusing news from China, but also from other countries like Italy, escalated to a terrifying media flood by March 2020, with constant references to the “new coronavirus” and already in January to the first “corona deaths”.
Notably quickly, a supposed test (PCR-test) was available, which, although it did not provide a definitive proof of infection, could produce a large number of “cases” instead. The health authorities, which the mainstream media ridiculed for their outdated IT equipment and hysterically denounced for their statistics, struggled to keep up and R-values and incidence rates only added to the confusion. In the published opinion, the proportion of the artificially generated case numbers to the enormous expansion of the “tests” (exponential growth) was constantly ignored.
To bring order to this chaos of terms, numbers and opinions, RT DE published two almost encyclopedic articles in the spring and summer of 2020, which are still recommended for introducing readers to the complex topic today. These articles contain numerous links to scientific papers, journalistic sources and a wide range of other relevant materials.
Mass media-induced hysteria
Against the backdrop of this panic reporting, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the previously classified “epidemic” of the respiratory disease in March 2020 to be a global “pandemic”. In Germany, numerous Corona measures were imposed and many fundamental rights as well as public life were severely restricted, all in the name of the WHO.
Apart from its ongoing current reporting in news, background reports and commentaries, RT DE had already begun to accompany the Corona situation with a live ticker at the end of February 2020. This service with short news updates on the development of the “pandemic” continued until mid-March 2020, before the first “lockdown” was imposed nationwide by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state premiers – bypassing the Bundestag and state parliaments.
Journalistic mission
Unlike the entire mainstream, RT DE has been committed to fulfilling the journalistic standards from the very beginning, even in the times of a declared pandemic. Both in our online service and in our TV programs and reports, RT DE has engaged in clarification and has not blindly followed the mainstream narrative on Corona. Examples of this include the interviews with the Kiel doctor Claus Köhnlein from the spring and autumn of 2020, which appeared in the series Der fehlende Part. Both interviews immediately caused a stir and have become legendary for Corona clarification. No wonder that YouTube has been impeding and since October 2021 has completely prevented the spread of these videos due to alleged “disinformation”. Similarly, all further videos mentioned here have been deleted from YouTube due to alleged misinformation.
Milestones of clarification were also the interviews with Daniele Ganser in April 2020 (available in excerpts here, in full here), in which he raised the question of whether the Corona crisis was actually about health or not rather about power.
In July 2020, our then editor Jasmin Kosubek interviewed the Austrian biologist Clemens Arvay about the development of “vaccines” and the possibilities of prophylaxis for strengthening the immune system.
Example of a further “strike” that led to the deletion of the YouTube channels of RT DE (screenshot). RT
In October 2020, the author Paul Schreyer spoke with RT journalist Margarita Bityutski about the prehistory of “COVID-19”. In his book “Chronicle of an announced crisis – How a virus could change the world”, Schreyer not only analyzed the numerous pandemic exercises that had taken place since the 1990s but also the concept of “biosecurity” in the context of Corona measures and the accompanying propaganda.
Reports
Apart from the interviews with the aforementioned “big names” of the coronamaßnahmenkritischen movement, RT DE has been presenting various reports since the spring of 2020, which dealt with the actual situation in hospitals (the widespread overloading of hospitals, which was constantly claimed by politics and the media, was refuted by our reports). We critically examined the even police-enforced social distancing measures, the so-called “social distancing”. We did not mention the endless debates about the various mask types or the “vaccines” and their side effects, which we have been critically following in all Corona years.
From New York, RT DE documented a report by a nurse who, through her observations in hospitals in the US metropolis, was able to demonstrate that many COVID-19 patients did not have to die, but lost their lives due to just systematic medical mismanagement.
And, in a current reference, an interview with the now confirmed US Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which RT DE conducted in August 2020, is still relevant today. Already at the time, the nephew of the assassinated US President John F. Kennedy in the interview with our sender criticized the censorship and narrowing of the debate room and stated: “Only RT DE still lets people speak freely!”
Last but not least, we would like to remind you of the comprehensive series of articles with reports on the work of the Corona Committee. The Foundation of the same name had started its investigation in the summer of 2020. From the beginning, RT DE has been accompanying the individual sessions until the autumn of 2021.
“Aufarbeitung”? What clarification?
Everywhere, since months, the mainstream media have been talking about investigating, “evaluating” and drawing conclusions for the future from the Corona measures. Print media, the public broadcasting service, but also most commercial broadcasters and social media channels are suddenly pretending to be interested in an impartial assessment. This is a simulation.
RT DE, on the other hand, has nothing to “clarify” and – unlike the old media – does not need to apologize to anyone. Not only during Corona times, but always, RT DE has stood firm against sanctions, threats and hate and has continued to present the “missing part” as usual, despite all the obstacles. RT DE belongs to the few media that have fulfilled their journalistic duty of care. Modestly, RT DE can say that it has contributed to the protection of the health of its readers and viewers and may have even saved lives.
The renowned journalist Walter van Rossum stated in his 2023-published book “Alternatives in Media and Law”: “RT DE went on the air in Germany in 2014. The live stream was banned across the EU in March 2022 due to the Ukraine war. The platform remains with current articles.” Van Rossum, who, after stations at WDR, DLF, Zeit and FAZ, has established himself as a successful author – with the Spiegel including him in the bestseller list – states in a more than 20-page overview of critical and alternative media in the German-speaking area, acknowledging: “RT DE did not represent the position of the Russian government on Corona.