UK REVOKES LICENSE OF RUSSIAN TV CHANNEL

Fri 18 March 2022:

The UK has revoked the broadcasting license of Russian state-funded television channel RT.

“Ofcom has today revoked RT’s licence to broadcast in the UK, with immediate effect,” the UK’s media regulator said in a statement, adding it did not consider it “fit and proper” for RT to operate in the country.

“We have done so on the basis that we do not consider RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, fit and proper to hold a UK broadcast licence,” a statement from the watchdog said.

“Today’s decision comes amid 29 ongoing investigations by Ofcom into the due impartiality of RT’s news and current affairs coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” it added.

Ofcom said they considered the “volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised within such a short period to be of great concern – especially given RT’s compliance history.”

A separate investigation “to determine whether ANO TV Novosti is fit and proper to retain its licence to broadcast” has been launched, the statement added.

It said: “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,” it said, referring to Russia’s war on Ukraine, now in its fourth week.

“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.”

RT, previously known as Russia Today, has been off air in the UK due to sanctions imposed to Russia “as a result of sanctions imposed by the EU since the invasion of Ukraine commenced.”

The UK watchdog also said it takes seriously “the importance, in our democratic society, of a broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression and the audience’s right to receive information and ideas without undue interference.”

“We also take seriously the importance of maintaining audiences’ trust and public confidence in the UK’s broadcasting regulatory regime.”

However, Ofcom said that they have “concluded that we cannot be satisfied that RT can be a responsible broadcaster in the current circumstances. Ofcom is therefore revoking RT’s licence to broadcast with immediate effect.”

Russia’s RT says British media regulator is just a tool of the government

Russia’s state-funded RT television channel has said that the UK’s media regulator had unfairly revoked its broadcasting license due to the conflict in Ukraine and accused it of being nothing but a tool of the British government.

“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.”

RT was previously fined for £200,000 ($263,000) impartiality breaches.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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