Life News
| Life | |
|---|---|
Life logo since 2016
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| Launched | 2 September 2013 |
| Closed | 18 August 2017 |
| Owned by | News Media Holding |
| Picture format | 16:9 SDTV, HDTV |
| Slogan | First in breaking news |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia |
| Website | life |
Life newsdesk
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Type of site
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News |
|---|---|
| Available in | Russian |
| Website | life |
| Alexa rank | 59 (Russia 09/2014) 1143 (Global 09/2014) |
| Launched | September 2009 |
| Current status | active |
Life (stylized as L!FE, formerly LifeNews) is a Russian news website and 24-hour television channel that is owned by the News Media holding company. The TV channel was officially launched in September 2013. As of February 2014, it had a potential audience of 30 million subscribers. The channel's editor-in-chief is Anatoly Suleymanov. and it is owned by Ashot Gabrelyanov.
The Gabrelyanovs operate in different sectors of Russian life from showbusiness to the security services. According to an article in The Moscow Times an influence on their recent success has been loyalty to the Kremlin. "The father, Aram Gabrelyanov, refers to President Vladimir Putin as the "father of the nation". One of Putin's oldest friends spent $80 million to become a key shareholder in the Gabrelyanovs' holding company, News Media, providing it with a flood of cash for investment.'
In September 2014 Ukraine's National Council of Television banned 15 Kremlin-run channels, including Life News, for what they claimed was war propaganda.
In 2015 News Media cut around 15 to 17 percent of the employees of Lifenews.
Life has been shut down on August 18, 2017. Previously it has been published that the TV channel is about to reduce staff.
LifeNews is notable for a servile attitude toward the Kremlin and a proximity to the Russian security services.
While broadcasting news about events during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, LifeNews was derided for falsely claiming to have found the business card of Dmytro Yarosh at the site of a battle in the Donbass. Ukrainians quickly created an internet meme called the Yarosh business card and called the reporting "propaganda worse than that of Nazi Germany" When the number on the card was called, it reached an unaffiliated elderly woman, casting further doubts on the claims of LifeNews.
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015, it aired a piece from one of it its regular contributors and 'expert political analysts' that said the terrorist attack had been carried out by the US against France in order to further an anti-Russian agenda. These claims were treated as little more than conspiracy theories meant to build pro-Putin support in American media
According to the Security Service of Ukraine, it is a paramilitary organization. Andrew Levus, SBU, called members of the LifeNews channel 'specific special operations combat units of information.'
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Wikipedia