LONDON (CU)_ Russia’s state-backed news channel RT has been under increased fire from across Europe since Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine. Last month, the agency, together with fellow Russia-backed channel Sputnik were banned by the European Union which alleged that they were spreading ”lies to justify Putin’s war”. This week, UK media regulator Ofcom decided to follow suit, in the latest of a host of measures launched by the UK against President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
RT’s license to broadcast in the UK was revoked “with immediate effect”, Ofcom said on Friday, owing to the impartiality of the agency’s news coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “We do not consider RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, fit and proper to hold a UK broadcast licence,” it said, adding that the decision comes amid 29 ongoing investigations by Ofcom regarding the agency’s news and current affairs coverage of the escalating conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.
“This investigation has taken account of a number of factors, including RT’s relationship with the Russian Federation. It has recognised that RT is funded by the Russian state, which has recently invaded a neighbouring sovereign country,” the broadcasting authority said. “We also note new laws in Russia which effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative, in particular in relation to the invasion of Ukraine. We consider that given these constraints it appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules of our Broadcasting Code in the circumstances.”
Responding to the decision, RT television channel accused the regulator of being nothing but a tool of the government of the UK. “Ofcom has shown the UK public, and the regulatory community internationally, that despite a well-constructed facade of independence, it is nothing more than a tool of government, bending to its media-suppressing will,” Anna Belkina, RT’s deputy editor in chief, told Reuters. “By ignoring RT’s completely clean record of four consecutive years and stating purely political reasons tied directly to the situation in Ukraine and yet completely unassociated to RT’s operations, structure, management or editorial output, Ofcom has falsely judged RT to not be ‘fit and proper’ and in doing so robbed the UK public of access to information.”
