Russia’s RT says British media regulator is just a tool of the government

LONDON (Reuters) – Russia’s state-funded RT television channel said on Friday that Britain’s media regulator had unfairly revoked its broadcasting license due to the conflict in Ukraine and accused it of being nothing but a tool of the British government.

Britain’s media regulator said it had revoked Russian-backed television channel RT’s licence to broadcast in the UK with immediate effect after a probe into the impartiality of its coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“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.

“By ignoring RT’s completely clean record of four consecutive years and stating purely political reasons tied directly to the situation in Ukraine and yet completely unassociated to RT’s operations, structure, management or editorial output, Ofcom has falsely judged RT to not be ‘fit and proper’ and in doing so robbed the UK public of access to information.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge)