Founded in 1995, 1TV, or Channel One, is a Russian State TV channel based in Moscow. It provides news, documentary, feature film productions, and entertainment programs. Konstantin Ernst is the CEO of Channel One Russia.

Funded by / Ownership

The Russian government directly controls and operates state media and exercises considerable influence over private media. The Russian Government funds TV1 with additional revenue through advertising.

Analysis / Bias

1TV promotes Russian state interests and, according to Reuters Channel One, “closely follows the Kremlin line.”

The headlines are emotionally loaded in favor of the Kremlin and negative towards the United States. Such as here, “Volodymyr Zelensky will send a list of the next weapons needed by Ukraine to the United States” and “Joe Biden and Vladimir Zelensky in St. Michael’s Cathedral talked about new batches of weapons.” The article discusses the new arms aid package between Zelensky and Biden. It draws a negative comparison between Biden and former president Trump stating that Trump favors the American people at home and not Ukraine: “Meanwhile, Donald Trump went to Ohio to the site of a large-scale environmental disaster after a train crash with highly toxic chemicals.”

On March 2022, Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel 1, interrupted her network’s live broadcast with an Anti-War Sign protesting the war; on the banner, she wrote: “No War” and “They are lying to you here.” 

According to RFE/RL, Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, forbade media organizations from describing Russia’s unprovoked actions as an invasion or a war, instead insisting they are called “special military operations.” For example, in this article, they glorify the success of the “so called’ Special Operation “New examples of the courage of the Russian military who are fighting in the special operation zone.“

In general, Channel One Russia publishes right-leaning pro-government propaganda (censorship) that features conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and false claims, by the government, as evidenced below in failed fact checks.

Failed Fact Checks

• “North Korea sent more than 100,000 troops to Russia for the Ukraine War!” – False
• “Well, today we finally managed to see the enemy’s face – the first high-quality photos of the coronavirus appeared.” – False
• “The program of Megyn Kelly, our favorite American TV anchor, is being taken off the air. She was fired on a completely contrived pretext — for something she did not say about the color of Halloween masks. – False
• “The case against Russian citizen Denis Katsyv, the owner of the Prevezon company and the first defendant under so-called Magnitsky law, actually fell apart in a New York federal court.” – False
• The country’s military has developed technology capable of neutralizing an adversary’s planes, ships and missiles within a 5,000-kilometer radius. – False
• Newsguard has listed 100s of translated articles that may contain misinformation.

Overall, we rate Channel One Russia or 1tv.ru Right-Center biased and Questionable based on the promotion of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, state propaganda, and numerous false claims and failed fact checks. (M. Huitsing 02/27/2023)

Source: https://www.1tv.ru/