The Russian Government announced Monday the inclusion of German television channel Deutsche Welle in its list of “foreign agents”, several weeks after restricting access to its content amid the invasion of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Justice stated in a statement that the decision was adopted “in line with documents received by the relevant state authorities” and on the basis of the legislation in force in the country, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.
The Russian communications regulatory agency (Roskomnadzor) announced on March 4 restrictions on the broadcasting of Deutsche Welle, as well as the Russian service of the British broadcaster BBC and the US international public broadcaster RFE/RL, after the Prosecutor's Office alleged that these media were violating national law” on information, information technologies and information protection”.
In early February, Russia ordered the closure of the office of DW correspondents in Moscow and the withdrawal of journalists' accreditations. DW's website was also blocked in Russia.
“This new arbitrary decision by the Russian authorities was, unfortunately, to be expected. One more step to attack freedom of the press and a new attempt to separate the Russian population from free information,” said DW Director General Peter Limbourg, as reported by the DPA news agency.
Limbourg added that all this, however, does not prevent DW from “continuing to report independently and comprehensively on Russia and the region from our new study in Latvia and from Germany”.
For his part, Christian Trippe, director of DW for Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, added: “We journalists continue to do our job and provide reliable information to our audience in Russia”.
Moscow reacted by closing the DW office in the Russian capital following the ban on broadcasting television programs in German by Russian state broadcaster RT, a sanction carried out in early February by media regulators in Germany.
In Germany, media regulatory authorities argued that RT lacked a broadcasting license. RT launched its program in German in mid-December through various distribution channels invoking a Serbian license. In Germany, a broadcasting licence is required for national television programmes.
(With information from Europa Press)
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