Boss of social enterprise running taxpayer-funded courses to protect schoolchildren from disinformation appears on Vladimir Putin's propaganda channel

The antheral moving taxpayer-funded courses to support schoolchildren from disinformation has made repeated appearances connected Vladimir Putin's propaganda channel.

Matteo Bergamini's Shout Out UK organisation received a stock of a £3million assistance from London Mayor Sadiq Khan and has worked with implicit 50 councils to thatch 30,000 youngsters to assistance 'counter disinformation done governmental and media literacy'.

He boasts of having implicit 1,500 schools successful the group's web and that its clients person besides included the Home Office, Department of Culture, the Greater London Authority and US State Department.

Mr Bergamini was made an MBE for Services to Charity, Social Enterprise and Education successful the 2023 King's Birthday Honours.

And helium has started an All-Party Parliamentary Group with respective elder MPs and peers to 'bring governmental and media literacy education' to each young idiosyncratic successful Britain.

But for 3 years aft the afloat motorboat of his organisation, Mr Bergamini made aggregate appearances connected Kremlin backed RT - antecedently called Russian Today - which watchdogs yet pulled successful the UK aft wide accusations it was promoting lies and propaganda.

He described being 'honoured' to talk astatine the 2017 World Festival of Youth successful Russia, which was branded a Kremlin brushed powerfulness lawsuit and was besides addressed by Putin.

Mr Bergamini appeared connected RT connected surface and online betwixt 2015 and 2018, adjacent aft past hard near Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had told Corbynite MPs not to look connected it pursuing the sickening nervus cause onslaught by Russian agents successful in Salisbury successful March 2018.

In a September 2018 RT interrogation astir past Home Secretary Amber Rudd's ID paper plan, helium appeared connected surface arsenic the transmission promoted its much-mocked interrogation with the 2 suspected authorities assassins arsenic they explained unchallenged that they had been guiltless tourer successful Salisbury who approached dissident Sergei Skripal's location by accident.

RT was aboriginal fined £200,000 by Ofcom successful 2019 for breaching impartiality rules implicit its reporting of the Salisbury poisonings and the warfare successful Syria.

In a 2017 RT quality Mr Bergamini accused the New York Times and Wall Street Journal of launching a 'witch hunt' against RT aft the US papers accused the presumption of posting 'unreliable, misleading and highly partisan' contented fuelled by a adjacent narration with societal media.

He said: 'They couldn't conscionable judge that RT is doing good by providing radical with [content] that radical volition watch… '[They] are conscionable choking retired accusations without immoderate evidence…'

Mr Bergamini told the Mail that helium wasn't successful power of RT's editing of his comments and helium believed disapproval of the transmission was warranted.

Mr Bergamini did not notation his aggregate RT appearances erstwhile hosting a 53-minute-long Nato sponsored podcast recorded astatine the US Embassy successful June 2023 informing astir Russian authorities propaganda.

The podcast included an extended conception astir RT 'pumping retired disinformation' successful which helium interviewed a US world who described however the transmission had been spreading conspiracy theories since 2008 and was filled with 'Kremlin affable voices'.

RT was yet pulled from UK screens successful March 2022 pursuing the penetration of Ukraine erstwhile Ofcom revoked its licence and the European Union banned it for promoting 'systematic accusation manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin'.

Ofcom aboriginal ruled RT had breached impartiality rules 29 times implicit its sum of the war.

Mr Bergamini started Shout Out UK arsenic a pupil blog successful 2011 to level younker voices and it became a 'fully fledged' organisation successful 2015 declaring its 'mission to support and amplify democracy' by ensuring each citizens are 'inoculated from disinformation and misinformation.'

On 23 March 2014, arsenic Russia was successful the last states of annexing Crimea, Shout Out UK's authoritative Twitter relationship posted a tweet saying: 'Has Cameron and Obama's onslaught connected a antiauthoritarian determination to articulation Russia by Crimea shown aged signs of occidental imperialism?'

Mr Bergamini told the Mail the tweet should besides person included a blog to an nonfiction voicing idiosyncratic else's sentiment and that helium 'fully condemned' the annexation.

Later that twelvemonth the relationship was utilized to Tweet an lawsuit with authorities media Rossiga Novessya, RIA Novosti, a forerunner of the Sputnik quality bureau which has besides since been banned successful the UK by Ofcom. It urged anyone wanting to beryllium a writer with RIA Novosti? interaction Shout Out UK.

Mr Bergamini, who has besides made galore appearances connected different quality channels, told the Mail that going connected RT oregon speaking astatine an lawsuit did not 'constitute an endorsement of its practices', that Shout Out UK's 'major works with governments' began aft his RT appearances and helium did not notation these successful the Nato podcast due to the fact that it was to 'platform experts' not springiness his 'personal experience.'

The time aft the Mail approached for remark helium Tweeted an nonfiction connected Shout Out UK's website entitled 'my acquisition with overseas authorities propaganda' which besides addressed astir of the points we had enactment to him.

Mr Bergamini dated the nonfiction arsenic 4 days anterior to being contacted by the Mail - and aboriginal told america it had been written 'some clip ago' - but repeatedly declined to corroborate the day helium had published it online.