The UK government has asked media watchdog Ofcom to review the Russia Today (RT) news channel’s broadcasts in the UK., The BBC reports.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries told Ofcom the channel “is demonstrably part of Russia’s global disinformation campaign” during the Ukraine crisis.It is essential that the UK looks to limit Russia’s ability to spread their propaganda at home,” she said.
Ofcom said it has “already stepped up our oversight of coverage” of the crisis by broadcasters in the UK.
The Russian foreign ministry said it would take retaliatory steps against British journalists if the UK restricts Russian media.
The Kremlin-backed channel, which is available to millions of homes in the UK, said the UK government was interfering in institutions like Ofcom that were supposedly free from political pressure.
In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the channel as the “personal propaganda tool” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and called on Boris Johnson to review its licence.
The prime minister replied that the culture secretary “has already asked Ofcom to review that matter,” adding “But what I will say is that we live in a in a democracy, and we live in a country that believes in in free speech. And I think it’s important that we should leave it up to Ofcom rather than to politicians to decide which media organisations to ban. That’s what Russia does.”
In her letter to the regulator, Ms Dorries said she was concerned that the channel would “look to spread harmful disinformation about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine here in the UK”.
Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes replied: “Recognising the serious nature of the crisis in Ukraine, we have been keeping the situation under close review and have already stepped up our oversight of coverage of these events by broadcasters in the UK.
“We are expediting complaints in this area as a matter of urgency and we will not hesitate to take swift action where necessary. I am confident that we have the full range of enforcement tools at our disposal and our track record shows that when we find a breach of our rules, we can and do take action.”
The Russian broadcaster is widely seen as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin and was taken off the air in Latvia and Lithuania in 2020. Its German outlet RT DE was banned earlier this month because German regulators said it did not have an EU licence.
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