A Russian radio presenter has been sacked for calling Vladimir Putin voters “primates” after he swept to victory in the country’s presidential election.

As Putin was reported to have won around three quarters of all votes cast, Rosina Budans told listeners: “I’ve been increasingly under the impression recently that I live in a country where 74 per cent of citizens are primates.”

In fact Putin’s total was 76.6 per cent of all votes cast, his best result in four presidential election victories. Observers said electoral irregularities such as ballot-stuffing and intimidation were suspected.

But Budans’ employer Radio SV, based in Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Oblast region, took exception to her criticism.

She had also said: “Special hello to those here in Kamchatka who fabulously and beautifully stuffed ballot boxes.”

The electoral commission of Kamchatka complained to Radio SV, which apologised unreservedly.

The station’s editor, Roman Zhukov, said: “Freedom of speech is not freedom to insult and accuse indiscriminately. For the expression of personal opinions there are various web platforms and blogs.”

Some UK media outlets published videos apparently showing election officials stuffing ballot boxes with pre-completed voting slips presumed to favour Putin.

Putin had been challenged for the presidency by anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, but Russia’s Central Election Commission barred Navalny from standing, citing an embezzlement conviction.

Picture: Yuri Kadobnov/Reuters/Pool

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Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and other world leaders have been named winners in the Press Oppressors Awards handed out by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The CPJ launched the awards in response to President Trump’s announcement that he would give out “fake news” awards to publishers and broadcasters, which he is expected to unveil today.

The CPJ said: “Amid the public discourse of fake news and President Trump’s announcement via Twitter about his planned ‘fake news’ awards ceremony, CPJ is recognising world leaders who have gone out of their way to attack the press and undermine the norms that support freedom of the media.

“From an unparalleled fear of their critics and the truth, to a relentless commitment to censorship, these five leaders and the runner-ups in their categories have gone above and beyond to silence critical voices and weaken democracy.”

Trump has been awarded the Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom Award for the use of his “fake news’ slur aimed at publishers and broadcasters in the US and because he has “declined to publicly raise freedom of the press with repressive leaders”.

The US Commander in Chief was also runner-up for the Most Thin-skinned award, which was given to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Under Erdogan some 150 journalists and media workers have been jailed and more than 180 media outlets have been closed by decree

Erdogan also took the Most Outrageous Use of Terror Laws Against the Press prize having tried journalists under terrorism propaganda or incitement charges in relation to the failed coup attempt.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin battled it out for the Tightest Grip on Media award. Jinping came top because of China’s stringent control on most media outlets and the internet.

The CPJ also mentioned the country’s harassment of sources and foreign journalists. A BBC correspondent was famously blocked from speaking to a Chinese independent candidate in 2016.

North Korea and Eritrea were not included in the award because there is no independent media in either country.

The Biggest Backslider in Press Freedom award went to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi following the arrest of two Reuters journalists who have been charged with breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act.

Picture: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

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A Russia Today reporter based in London has resigned with immediate effect in protest at the station’s coverage of yesterday’s plane crash in Ukraine.

Sara Firth had worked at Russia Today for five years, joining the Russian government-funded station in Moscow straight after doing an MA in journalism at City University in London. She has since been posted in London.

Firth described the Malaysia Airlines flight crash coverage as “the straw that broke the camel’s back for me” and handed in her resignation this morning.

Russia Today has been criticised for suggesting the crash is the fault of Ukraine. Most other media outlets have suggested a more likely explanation is that pro-Russian separatists were responsible for shooting down the passenger jet. So far it is estimated that around 300 people died in the crash.

“Yesterday when the story broke you get the kick in your stomach when you’re going to get the facts and it’s this huge story,” she told Press Gazette.

“And I walked into the newsroom and they were running an eye-witness account of God-knows who the person was blaming the Ukrainian government, and it is such a volatile situation.”

Firth, who told Press Gazette in an interview in 2012 that facts are her “religion”, said: “I said it then, if I was asked to burn the facts and not tell the truth I’d be a goner, and so I’m gone…

“And it’s the level of disrespect for the facts that really bugs me.

“And so I made my decision yesterday when we started covering the story and this morning woke up and I just knew that I can’t go back in any more.”

She added: “The thing is once I made the decision, you have to be honest with yourself and it’s so difficult…. Once you start telling the truth it’s brutal.”

In response to her resignation, a Russia Today spokesperson said that the channel and Firth "apparently… have different definitions of truth".

Firth told Press Gazette: “They believe that fully, 'definitions of the truth'. There you go – that’s RT. What can you say?”

Firth said that "rule one of the Russia Today style guide is to blame Ukraine, or anything else, rather than Russia". “It’s scary that it’s genuine RT guidance on how to do a story, and you have to believe it to succeed there.You stop believing that what they say is the way it is and you stop being useful to them…

“It’s not a nice organisation either.”

A Russia Today spokesperson said: "We were not surprised by Sara Firth’s decision to leave RT after 5 years as a Moscow and London correspondent, as she has recently informed us that she was likely to take an offer from another firm.

"The plane crash is an absolutely terrible tragedy, there are a lot of questions that surround it and everybody is looking for answers. More than 15 RT journalists are working on this story – from Moscow, from the Russian-Ukrainian border, London, Berlin, Washington. RT Spanish journalist Francisco Guaita was one of the first TV correspondents to get to the scene late last night; our reporters are in Netherlands and in Malaysia.

"Sara has declared that she chooses the truth; apparently we have different definitions of truth. We believe that truth is what our reporters see on the ground, with their own eyes, and not what’s printed in the morning London newspaper. In our coverage, RT, unlike the rest of the media, did not draw conclusions before the official investigation has even begun. We show all sides of the story, even if everyone else has already decided which side is to blame."

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The Guardian believes there is an "orchestrated" pro-Kremlin campaign in the comments on its website.

Readers' editor Chris Elliott has highlighted a number of suspcious comments which have emerged on stories about the Ukraine conflict in recent months.

Former Russia correspondent Luke Harding, who is now based in Ukraine after being expelled from Russia in 2011, has been labelled a "Russian hater" and appears to have been targeted.

Harding described the alleged campaign as a "well-attested phenomenon" with Elliott highlighting an article on The Guardian from 2012 that reported:

A pro-Kremlin group runs a network of internet trolls, seeks to buy flattering coverage of Vladimir Putin (pictured: Reuters) and hatches plans to discredit opposition activists and media, according to private emails allegedly hacked by a group calling itself the Russian arm of Anonymous.

"The group has uploaded hundreds of emails it says are to, from and between Vasily Yakemenko, the first leader of the youth group Nashi [and] now head of the Kremlin's Federal Youth Agency, its spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik, and other activists. The emails detail payments to journalists and bloggers, the group alleges."

Elliott reports a senior moderator as saying: “We can look at the suspicious tone of certain users, combined with the date they signed up, the time they post and the subjects they post on. Zealous pro-separatist comments in broken English claiming to be from western countries are very common, and there's a list of tropes we've learnt to look out for. These posts may be suspicious but it's when the content of them breaks our community standards that we will step in.

"A larger problem on these threads is users accusing each other of being 'bots', 'trolls' or 'astroturfers', usually wrongly. These accusations do break the community standards (they're essentially abusive statements) and moderators take a hand here. We will also, obviously, act against abusive statements at the expense of our writers, of which Luke receives a substantial number. Those are more likely to be the reason for us taking action on these threads. It's only when an account crosses those lines that we step in."

Elliott wrote: “In fairness there is no conclusive evidence about who is behind the trolling, although Guardian moderators, who deal with 40,000 comments a day, believe there is an orchestrated campaign. Harding, who is inured to the abuse, would simply like better systems to deal with it, as would the moderation and community teams.”

Elliott highlighted the alleged pro-Putin campaign after receiving complaints from readers over the comments.

One complaint read: "One need only pick a Ukraine article at random, pick any point in the comments at random, and they will find themselves in a sea of incredibly aggressive and hostile users (the most obvious have accounts created since February 2014 … but there also exist those who registered with the Guardian before the high point of the crisis) who post the most biased, inciteful [sic] pro-Kremlin, anti-western propaganda that seems as if it's taken from a template, so repetitive are the statements. Furthermore, these comments are consistently capturing inordinate numbers of 'recommends', sometimes on the order of 10 to 12 times what pro-Ukrainian comments receive."

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The London Assembly has called for the immediate release of jailed journalist Kieron Bryan who has been in custody for the past 50 days.

The chamber voted unanimously for Russian authorities to free Bryan and the other 29 detainees who are facing charges of hooliganism.

Bryan was filming a Greenpeace protest aboard their vessel the Arctic Sunrise when it was raided by Russian special forces.

Assembly member Valerie Shawcross proposed the motion calling for Bryan’s release.

"The Russian authorities must by now realise that their overreaction to a peaceful Greenpeace protest in international waters has served only to reinforce suspicions that Russia pays lip service to democratic rights”

”The detention of Kieron Bryan is particularly grievous as he was not engaged in the protest but on board the Artic Sunrise to record and report on them. His arrest is a further threat to journalistic freedoms throughout Russia, he should be released immediately.

”If journalists are not given the space to do their job, how will we ever know what the powerful and powerful corporations are doing.”

She was supported by fellow assembly member Jenny Jones: “Legitimate protest and the rights of journalists to report are central to a free society. Russia must live up to its international obligations to respect justice and due process. To protect our own freedoms we must stand up when others are threatened, Kieron Bryan’s detention threatens us all.”

This follows David Cameron’s intervention in the affair with a phone-call to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A spokesperson for Cameron said the Prime Minister called for “prompt, fair and proportionate action”.

"President Putin was understanding of the Prime Minister's concerns. They agreed to stay in touch on the issue," a No 10 spokesman said.

Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Cameron described the charges as "excessive" and called on the Russians to "de-escalate" the situation. "Their charges have been dropped from piracy to hooliganism, but I still think that is excessive. They are not hooligans, they are protesters.In a letter home Kieron Bryan said: "The hardest moment was the first night in prison – none of us knew where we were or what conditions the detention held, or whether we would be separated, left to navigate the unknown alone. Being shown to my cell and introduced to a couple of strangers was frightening, to say the least."

Greenpeace political director Ruth Davis welcomed Cameron's intervention."The indications are that this was a positive call, and we hope this will translate into the urgent action needed that will see all 30 of those detained released without delay," she said.

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The Moskovsky Korrespondent newspaper published the story, printed an apology on Thursday night, and admitted there was no factual basis for the story. It was widely followed up outside Russia, but practically untouched by other titles in the country.

At a press conference earlier this week, Putin told journalists to keep their “snotty noses” out of his personal life.

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