Considered as a Kremlin propaganda tool abroad, the chain has sparked controversy in many countries.
Le Monde with AFP
The Russian Russia Today (RT) channel will no longer emit Germany. The German media regulator announced Wednesday 2 February the ban on the diffusion of the chain in German, launched on December 16, on the background of tensions between Moscow and the Westerners.
“The broadcast of the RT television program”, still available on the website and a mobile application, has been “prohibited” because “the necessary authorization according to the right of the media” has been “nor requested or granted “, according to a communiqué of the Federal Zak.
Private Satellite Distribution
The YouTube platform had already suspended the German account of Russia Today on the day of its launch in December and, a few days later, it was the satellite distribution of the chain that had been suspended on request from the German authorities.
rt of had then replied that this blockage was “illegal” and the result of political pressures exerted by Berlin, and Moscow had threatened retaliation.
The channel has its seat in Moscow and has a Serbian license for cable and satellite transmission, which, according to RT, allows it to be broadcast in Germany in accordance with European law.
The German authority Zak considers, however, that the Serbian license is insufficient because RT of is produced by a company headquartered in Berlin, targeting “a German audience”.
As “the RT broadcaster can not rely on another legitimate authorization in European law”, the regulator considers that “the broadcast of the program through Livestream on the Internet, the mobile application, the applications for connected televisions and the satellite must stop “.
Tensions between Moscow and the Westerners
This prohibition intervenes in a very tense context between Russia and Europeans on the Ukrainian file, Westerners suspected Moscow to want to invade Ukraine.
Launched in 2005 under the name of Russia Today, the state-funded channel has developed with broadcasters and websites in several languages, including in English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.
Considered as a Kremlin propaganda tool outside the borders of Russia, it has generated controversy in many countries, particularly in the United States, where it had to register as a “foreign agent”. In Britain, the authorities threatened to withdraw its license for dissemination, and the chain was prohibited in several countries, particularly in Lithuania and Latvia.
To justify the suspension of the RT account in German, YouTube had explained that the chain violated its guidelines for the fight against misinformation about CVIV-19.