On February 2, 2022, the German media regulator (ZAK) decided to ban the broadcasting of the Russian channel Russia Today in German, reports AFP. RT DE no longer has the right to broadcast in Germany either on televisions via satellite broadcasting, via a video stream on its website or a mobile application.
German regulator bans broadcast of Russia Today DE channel in the country
The channel is accused by ZAK of being a mouthpiece for the Kremlin. The German regulator explains that “ permission required under media law has not been requested or granted “. Launched on December 16, RT DE had already been suspended by YouTube on the day of its launch. The platform had explained that the channel’s account violated its guidelines on combating disinformation about Covid-19. A measure reminiscent of that taken by Twitter in 2017 which suspended the Russia Today advertising account for sponsoring tweets influencing the 2016 US presidential election.
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The channel’s satellite broadcast had already been interrupted in Germany on December 22, 2021. The channel had first tried, via its holding company, to register in Luxembourg, but without success. She then fell back on a license that the group has in Serbia, an approach that the ZAK does not recognize. The regulator considers that RT DE is produced by a company headquartered in Berlin, that it targets a German audience and therefore cannot rely on another legitimate authorization under European law than that of Germany. RT DE responds to this that the Berlin office of the chain only provided ” program elements “.
In a tweet posted moments after the announcement, RT President Margarita Simonian claimed that ZAK’s decision was ” completely absurd ” and ” his channel wouldn’t stop broadcasting “. To counter the accusations against RT DE, she did not hesitate to draw a parallel with the situation of the German international German channel, Deutsche Welle, the equivalent of France 24, in Russia, ” It’s as if the Russian media regulator banned Deutsche Welle to distribute its content on its own website “.
Это полная чушь. Вещать не прекратим.
Это как если бы Роскомнадзор запретил Дойче Велле вещание на их собственном сайте.
Стоит попробовать, кстати.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) February 2, 2022
Moscow vows retaliation over RT DE ban in Germany
Russia Today announced on its website that it would take legal action against the decision, which it said ” for purely political reasons “. This ban comes in a context of very strong tension between Russia and the Europeans on the Ukrainian file since the West suspects the Kremlin of wanting to invade Ukraine.
When the satellite broadcast of the channel on demand was stopped in Germany, Moscow had already threatened the country with reprisals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated them following the decision taken by the ZAK: This decision leaves us no choice but to retaliate against German media accredited in Russia. “.
For his part, Tass Vladimir Solovyov, the president of the Russian Union of Journalists affirmed that ” Germany was doing everything to ban an alternative point of view, which violates the principles of freedom of expression “.