BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert has sharply condemned the broadcasting ban on Deutsche Welle in Russia. The decision was completely out of thin air, said Kühnert on Friday in Berlin. “This is political arbitrariness that is being used there.” Once again, freedom of the press is being restricted in a completely impermissible manner – “and this in a country where, unfortunately, freedom of the press is not particularly far off anyway,” said Kühnert. He assumes that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will address the issue during his planned visit to Moscow.
On Thursday, Russia issued a broadcast ban on Deutsche Welle (DW), the foreign broadcaster of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the closure of the correspondent’s office in Moscow and the withdrawal of journalists’ accreditations. On Wednesday, the Commission for Licensing and Supervision at the media authorities prohibited the distribution of the German-language TV program of the Russian state broadcaster RT DE due to a missing broadcasting license./tam/DP/ngu