RT BALKAN TV CHANNEL BEGINS BROADCASTING FROM BELGRADE

MOSCOW, DECEMBER 27, 2024 — RT has launched its 24-hour TV channel in Serbian – the news channel RT Balkan. Headquartered in Belgrade, RT Balkan will broadcast news, analysis, interviews and documentaries. 

“I congratulate the entire RT Serbian team and all our viewers on finally finding each other. We are incredibly happy that, despite all the sanctions, despite our voice being suppressed wherever possible, we will nevertheless broadcast here, in Serbia, in Europe. We very much hope that we won’t disappoint our viewers’ expectations,” said RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan. 

RT Balkan is available through several operators in Serbia and Republika Srpska, as well as online. The channel will cover the regional and global events, bringing RT’s trademark alternative perspective to the most pressing issues of the day. The new channel’s flagship show will be the interview program Relativizacija (“Relativization”), hosted by prominent Serbian journalist and former head of the Serbian Journalists’ Association, Ljiljana Smajlović. 

“RT Balkan has assembled a team of both experienced and young journalists who refuse to submit to Western narrative hegemony. We are proud to work in the only country in Europe where freedom of speech still exists – something that’s fashionable to talk about in the West but not to practice. We are very grateful to the politicians of Serbia and Russia who made this possible despite enormous pressure from Western countries trying to break the friendship between our peoples,” said RT Balkan Editor-in-Chief Jelena Milinčić. 

The RT Balkan multimedia portal launched online and on social media in 2022, becoming a popular information source for Serbian audiences. In 2023 alone, RT Balkan’s video content garnered 150 million views on social media, and doubled that number in 2024. Reporters Without Borders, in turn, labeled the portal as “Russia’s main propaganda outlet in the Balkans.” 

“I congratulate you on the launch of RT broadcasting in Serbian. This is for Serbia and for the Serbs – because Serbs live in Serbia, in Republika Srpska, in the Balkans and abroad. This is what we have all long waited for and worked hard to achieve. This decision was made and now has been implemented. I wish you success, interesting projects, and frank interlocutors. And as they say in Russia – good luck on your journey,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. 

The launch of RT Balkan was preceded by unprecedented pressure on RT and Serbian leadership from Western countries and media representatives. U.S. State Department Special Representative and Global Engagement Center Coordinator James Rubin, speaking about RT Balkan’s operations in Serbia in 2023, stated: “We would not like to see Russia Today or other Russian media anywhere. We want them shut down.” Additionally, the European Union demanded Serbia restrict Russian state media broadcasting, which Belgrade refused to do, as it does not support anti-Russian sanctions.