Current Time TV (project by Radio Liberty / Voice of America) added comments by Russian officials to reporting about crimes committed by the Russian army, citing the need to maintain “balance,” Ukrainian journalist and former Current Time host Iryna Romaliyska reported in an interview with the YouTube podcast Kliati Pytannia.
She said that with the start of the full-scale invasion, the channel’s Russian editors increasingly demanded that official Russian statements be included in war crime reports. In her view, this created a false sense of balance and legitimised Kremlin propaganda.
Romaliyska cited a situation that had occurred at the channel as she was working on a segment about an investigation into a Russian man who had called for violence against Ukrainian women.
“My editor tells me, ‘I’ve written you a lead-in after the segment.’ And it said, ‘Dmitry Peskov has not commented on this case specifically but has stressed that Russian servicemembers did not commit war crimes.’ That’s how I was supposed to wrap it up, apparently. I said, ‘No. That’s not balance. It’s not the sandwich principle. There is balance inside [the piece]. […] But this is pseudo-balance, and ending on something like “Russians don’t commit war crimes” — I’m not saying that. Go ahead, come into the studio and say it yourself if you want, but I won’t do it,'” Romaliyska recalled.
The journalist stressed that such attempts by the channel to push Russian narratives under the guise of adhering to journalism standards were consistent, meaning she had to fight to uphold her professional principles on a daily basis.
Because of her principled refusal to work under these rules, and her perspective being different from that of the management, Iryna Romaliyska has repeatedly been pulled from broadcasts and internally investigated.
The Institute of Mass Information has reached out to Radio Liberty with questions regarding Iryna Romaliyska’s dismissal from Current Time TV.
Previously
TV host and journalist Iryna Romaliyska reported having been dismissed from Current Time TV in April 2026.
In July 2026, she joined the YouTube channel Butusov+ as host of a weekly live programme.
In August 2026, Iryna Romaliyska shared details of her dismissal from the international TV channel Current Time/Nastoyaschee Vremya in April 2026. She alleged that the decision to dismiss her had been related to the changes in editorial policy, the channel’s Russia-centric vector, and her prolonged conflict with management over coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine.