After months of unverified claims from German media alleging that Red Media has ties to Moscow and helped incite pro-Palestine demonstrations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that the Leftist media outlet is part of a Russian intelligence operation aimed at interfering in foreign elections. Blinken’s statement escalates the accusations, aligning them with broader concerns about foreign influence on democratic processes.

At the onset of the Ukraine war, media outlets connected to the Russian state-run Ruptly agency, such as RT, faced widespread bans across Europe and Canada. These restrictions also extended to the United States, where they were forced to stop broadcasting. Among these was Redfish, a prominent Leftist media outlet with a contract with Ruptly, which ultimately had to suspend its operations as a result of the sanctions.

After widespread censorship of Russian-affiliated media in the West in 2022, journalists who previously worked for these outlets sought new platforms. One such outlet is Red (Revolutionary Educational Documentaries) Media, headed by Managing Director Huseyin Dogru, a former senior employee at Redfish.

Red Media continues to produce content focusing on leftist and revolutionary narratives, following in the footsteps of the journalists’ previous work despite the restrictions placed on Russian-linked media organizations.

German newspaper Tagesspiegel published an extensive report alleging that Red was covertly controlled by Russia and played a role in organizing pro-Palestine protests, including the Humboldt University student encampment. The article cited the outlet’s employment of former RT and Redfish journalists as evidence. However, Red Media has firmly denied these accusations, categorically rejecting claims of being a Russian propaganda outlet and asserting its editorial independence.

“We might be targeted now, but this whole censorship campaign is not just about us. They are laying the foundation for a crackdown on all critical voices. This is already happening. MintPress has also experienced censorship and attacks. Before our accounts were taken down, they took down accounts of other outlets like Electronic Intifada, for example,” Red’s Huseyin Dogru told MintPress.

During a September 13 press briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of covertly running media platforms, telling reporters, “RT covertly runs the Berlin-based English-language platform Red, a successor to the now defunct RT-linked platform Redfish.  RT also secretly runs the online platform African Stream across a wide range of social media platforms. Now, according to the outlet’s website, ‘African Stream is’ – and I quote – ‘a pan-African digital media organization based exclusively on social media platforms, focused on giving a voice to all Africans both at home and abroad.’ In reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists.”

African Stream, led by former PressTV journalist Ahmed Kaballo and based in Kenya, has vehemently denied accusations of being a Kremlin propaganda tool. These allegations were mentioned in a U.S. State Department “fact sheet” released on September 13, which also cited Tagesspiegel’s claims that Red had organized pro-Palestine protests in Germany. The State Department highlighted this as part of a broader effort to expose Russian influence in global media and protest movements.

Addressing the claim that Red was instigating pro-Palestine protests, Huseyin Dogru told MintPress News that the allegations manipulated the facts. He explained that Red had built trust within activist circles, and as a result, they were informed of the occupation at Berlin’s Humboldt University. While Red was among the first to report on the scene, Dogru argued that Tagesspiegel framed this journalistic work in a way to criminalize both Red and the protests, questioning the independence of the newspaper’s sources.

Neither the German government nor the German media liked what we were doing. So several so-called “independent” media outlets, as well as research outlets, started to look into us. Tagesspiegel then decided to write a hit piece on us. First, they said that Red media is instigating the protests in Germany: ‘The video platform ‘Red’ was the first medium in the occupied HU building and worked together with pro-Palestinian groups.’

Their evidence was that we were the first ones on the scene when the University in Berlin was occupied. Yes, we were not the only ones, but one of the first ones there, and we were informed about the occupation as people have trusted us over the last 12 months because of our coverage and shared information with us—protests, occupations, and other things. Having a source as a journalist was framed by Tagesspiegel in a very manipulative way to criminalize us and the protests themselves.

Tagesspiegel was cited by Blinken, and Tagesspiegel constantly gets information/sources from the German police and intelligence. Maybe we should ask ourselves if Tagesspiegel is not part of the German intelligence or even directly working for them?”

Regarding the allegations of Red’s ties to Redfish and RT, Dogru dismissed the claims, stating that the only basis for such accusations is that some employees previously worked at Redfish. Dogru drew a comparison, arguing that just as one cannot assume Germans today are Nazis because their families had Nazi affiliations, one cannot make the same assumption about Red due to former employment connections. He further criticized Tagesspiegel, suggesting that their alleged Nazi past might influence their support for the Israeli state’s actions in Palestine.

“These allegations were made for one reason: To undermine the legitimate and important protests against the genocide in Palestine committed by Israel and the complicity of the West. The best way to do this is to use the biggest fear or create a new fear to distract from all the other problems. If you create a conspiracy and frame it as a foreign state threat, people will believe that. This is what is happening,” Dogru added.

Shortly after the U.S. State Department’s allegations, Red and African Stream were banned from Meta and YouTube without detailed explanations. When asked about the impact of these actions, Dogru expressed concerns that the company might be forced to close. He feared that he could be arrested and charged with foreign intelligence activities, which could lead to imprisonment. Dogru emphasized that their only “crime” was conducting journalism that challenged Western imperialist narratives.

Stressing Red’s commitment to covering the war in Gaza and supporting Palestine, Dogru says, “We don’t want to make this case about us.” He highlighted that the current crackdown on Red could extend to all progressive voices, even those currently endorsing the bans. Dogru urged a united front among alternative media to support and protect each other, stating, We need to come together to create tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of voices fighting together against this censorship and crackdown—here in the West or in the East, everywhere in the world.”

Feature photo | Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference about Russia’s alleged election interference at the Department of State in Washington, Sept. 13, 2024. Jose Luis Magana | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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