The British media regulator withdrew the broadcasting license in the United Kingdom on Friday from the Russian state channel RT, considering that it is not “appropriate” to broadcast it after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin-related RT broadcasts in the United Kingdom had already been suspended in early March, after the satellite service was cut off to all providers as a result of sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union.
The broadcasting of RT on UK television platforms depends on the signal sent by satellites managed by EU-based companies. However, Ofcom had not withdrawn the channel's license until this Friday.
“Ofcom today revoked RT's broadcasting license in the UK, effective immediately,” the regulator said in a statement, adding that it does not consider the channel “suitable” to operate in the UK.
The regulator said it made the decision as long as there are 29 open investigations into the “due fairness of RT news and (...) coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.”
“RT is funded by the Russian state, which recently invaded a sovereign neighboring country,” Ofcom stressed, noting that “new legislation in Russia criminalizes any independent journalism that departs from the discourse of Russian state media.”
“Under these circumstances, it seems impossible for RT to meet the fairness standards of our broadcasting code,” the regulator concluded.
RT sub-editor Anna Belkina denounced this decision, stating that “despite a well-crafted facade of independence, (Ofcom) is nothing more than a tool of the government in its quest to suppress the media.”
And he denounced “purely political reasons directly linked to the situation in Ukraine”, which deprive “the British people of access to information”.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov denounced “anti-Russian madness” and “one step further along the lines of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, in violation of all laws on free labor of the media, including European laws.”
At the beginning of March, RT had already been banned from broadcasting in the EU, accusing it of being an instrument of Moscow's “disinformation”. The United States registered the channel as a “foreign agent”.
In 2019, Ofcom had already fined RT with penalties of £200,000 ($263.00, 238,000 euros) for breaching its duty of impartiality.
The veto could lead to similar Kremlin decisions against British channels operating in Russia such as the BBC and Sky News.
(With information from AFP)
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