Moscow, Feb 3 (AFP\/APP):Russia said Thursday it is closing the Moscow bureau of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and revoking staff accreditations in Russia, in response to Berlin’s ban on the German-language channel of Russian state TV network RT.<\/p>\n
Deutsche Welle called the decision “absurd” and a “complete overreaction.”
\nThe announcement comes with tensions mounting between Russia and the West, particularly over fears of a Russian invasion of Europe’s ally Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The closure also highlights the Kremlin’s increasingly hostile position towards foreign media in the wake of several high-profile expulsions of prominent foreign journalists.<\/p>\n
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday it will also “terminate the satellite and other broadcasting (output) of Deutsche Welle” on Russian territory.<\/p>\n
It added that it was initiating the process of designating the German media a “foreign agent” and said that further reciprocal measures will be announced in the future.<\/p>\n
Deutsche Welle — a German state-owned broadcaster — has services in 30 languages, including Russian.<\/p>\n
The moves comes after Germany’s broadcasting regulator on Wednesday announced it was banning the transmission of the channel “RT DE” over the lack of a broadcasting licence.<\/p>\n
Moscow had called the move an “infringement” on freedom of speech.<\/p>\n
– ‘A complete overreaction’ –<\/p>\n
Deutsche Welle’s chief Peter Limbourg said the order was an “absurd reaction of the Russian government.”<\/p>\n
“The measures of the Russian authorities are in no way comprehensible, and a complete overreaction,” he said.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster also vowed to keep reporting from its Moscow bureau until the Russian order is officially served.<\/p>\n
“Even if we were to close it eventually, that will not affect our coverage of Russia — rather, we will significantly boost our coverage,” said Limbourg.<\/p>\n
Russian officials and pro-Kremlin media, meanwhile, welcomed the move.
\n“Thank you, dear,” RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said on Twitter.
\nRussian senator Andrei Klimov called Moscow’s reaction “adequate”.<\/p>\n
“It is a responsive measure to the unfriendly acts from the German side,” Klimov, who leads a committee on international affairs in the upper house of the Russian parliament, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.<\/p>\n
RT DE — the German-language branch of RT — was blocked from Europe’s satellite network on December 22 at the request of German authorities, less than a week after going on air. But it was still available over the internet and via a mobile app.<\/p>\n
In its response to the suspension, RT DE said it was broadcast from Moscow and had a Serbian broadcasting licence, which it said gives it the right to broadcast in Germany under European law.<\/p>\n
But the German regulator said the channel was based in Berlin and did not have a “legitimate permit under European law”.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2005 as “Russia Today”, state-funded RT has expanded with channels and websites in languages including English, French, Spanish and Arabic.<\/p>\n
It has been accused by Western countries of distributing disinformation and Kremlin-friendly propaganda.<\/p>\n
It has generated controversy in many countries, including the United States, where it was required to register as a “foreign agent”, and in Britain, where authorities have threatened to revoke its broadcasting license.<\/p>\n
The channel has been banned in several countries, including the ex-Soviet republics Lithuania and Latvia.<\/p>\n
In September, Google-owned YouTube issued a warning to RT DE for violating its corona virus disinformation guidelines and then shuttered two channels for breaching user terms.<\/p>\n
A third channel was blocked in December for trying to circumvent the earlier terminations.<\/p>\n
In August, Moscow expelled a veteran BBC correspondent in retaliation for a Russian correspondent being denied accreditation by London.
\nThree months later, a Dutch correspondent was expelled on years-old administrative violations.<\/p>\n
The decision to shut down the German media outlet comes following months of unprecedented pressure on independent media from Russian authorities.<\/p>\n
Russia last year slapped a number of media outlets and journalists with the “foreign agent” label that requires them to carry out tedious administrative procedures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow, Feb 3 (AFP\/APP):Russia said Thursday it is closing the Moscow bureau of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and revoking staff accreditations in Russia, in response to Berlin’s ban on the German-language channel of Russian state TV network RT. Deutsche Welle called the decision “absurd” and […]<\/p>\n
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