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RT has had its license to broadcast in the UK revoked. /Reuters
Britain's media regulator on Friday revoked Russian-backed television channel RT's license to broadcast in the United Kingdom with immediate effect, citing its links to the Kremlin.
Regulator Ofcom said in a statement that RT received funding from the Russian state, which has launched military operations in Ukraine and cracked down on independent journalism.
Ofcom said it was not satisfied that RT could be a responsible broadcaster, and that its investigation took into account RT's relationship with the Russian government.
"It has recognized that RT is funded by the Russian state, which has recently invaded a neighboring sovereign country," it said. "We also note new laws in Russia which effectively criminalize any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state's own news narrative, particularly in relation to the invasion of Ukraine."
Ofcom concluded that it was impossible for RT to comply with the impartiality rules in Britain's broadcasting code.
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The Kremlin criticized the move. "This is a continuation of the madness which is going on in America and Europe – it is anti-Russian madness," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "This is yet another step that crudely limits freedom of speech."
Russia has cut access to several foreign news organizations' websites, including the BBC, for spreading what it alleged was false information about the war. Bloomberg News temporarily suspended the work of its journalists inside Russia, citing the new media law.
RT, which is currently off air in Britain due to EU sanctions, called the decision unfair. "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.
Russian officials say RT is a way for Moscow to compete with the dominance of global media companies based in the United States and Britain that Moscow says offer a partial view of the world.
