Russia Today criticises the ban imposed by Ofcom
1 min read
More to come on the news that Russian-backed television station Russia Today’s licence to transmit in the UK has been withdrawn by Ofcom.
It comes after the UK’s media watchdog opened an inquiry into the channel’s balanced coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We believe the number and possibly serious nature of the concerns reported within such a short period to be of significant concern – notably considering RT’s compliance history, which has seen the channel fined £200,000 for prior due impartiality violations”, the regulator said in a statement.
In this regard, we began a separate inquiry to evaluate if ANO TV Novosti is suitable and proper to keep its broadcasting licence.
“Freedom of speech is something we preserve vigorously in this country”, says Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes, and the bar for action on broadcasters is correctly set extremely high.
According to Reuters, RT’s response is that the regulator has demonstrated that it is “nothing more than a tool of the British government”.
The station had already vanished from all broadcast platforms in the UK earlier this month as a result of a European Union prohibition.
