British broadcast media regulator Ofcom said it had conducted 29 investigations into RT’s coverage of the Russian invasion and took into account the channel’s ties to the Russian state and new Russian laws that “virtually criminalize” any journalistic activity that deviates from the Kremlin’s war narrative.
“Freedom of expression is something we guard fiercely in this country, and the bar for action on broadcasters is rightly set very high,” said Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes. “Following an independent regulatory process today, we have found that RT is neither suitable nor suitable for obtaining a license in the UK. As a result, we have revoked RT’s license to broadcast in the UK.”
The European Union has already banned RT broadcasts as part of the wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
This measure suspended RT’s broadcasting activities in the European Union or was directed against it, affecting it British, German, French and Spanish networks. Ofcom confirmed in a statement on Friday that the channel is no longer operating in the United Kingdom due to EU sanctions.
The Kremlin called the UK’s actions “anti-Russian madness.”
“This is a continuation of the anti-Russian madness that is going on in Europe and the United States,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This is another step towards a gross restriction of freedom of speech, to the violation of all laws regarding the work of the media,” he added.
RT’s ability to broadcast President Vladimir Putin’s talking points around the world has been significantly curtailed in recent weeks as cable operators and social media channels have pulled the plug on the broadcaster.
DirecTV, one of the two major TV providers in the US, Carry RT said earlier this month that it is cutting ties with immediate effect. A few days later, RT America decided to end production and lay off most of its staff.
Ofcom’s actions could provoke further retaliation by the Russian authorities against British broadcasters such as the BBC. Earlier this week, Russian media regulators restricted access to the BBC website, having previously taken similar action against its Russian-language website.
“I think this is just the beginning of the response to the information war unleashed by the West against Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram message on Wednesday.
RT repeatedly violated broadcasting regulations in the UK long before the invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2019, Ofcom fined RT £200,000 ($263,000) for repeatedly violating impartiality rules in its coverage of the Skripal poisonings and the conflict in Syria. It emerged that RT failed to maintain “due impartiality” in seven programs that aired in March and April 2018.
The programs aired after the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. British authorities said they were the victims of an attack carried out by agents of the Russian military intelligence GRU.
On Friday, RT said the UK ban was “political”.
“For many years in the UK they have been looking for a formal reason to close RT, but they tried to maintain the appearance of freedom of speech. Now the masks have been removed, ”the channel’s message in the Telegram account says.
— Oliver Darcy, Chris Liacos and Charles Riley contributed to this article.