Ofcom revokes UK broadcasting licence of Kremlin-backed RT TV channel
The media regulator, Ofcom, has revoked Russian-backed television channel RT’s licence to broadcast in the UK with immediate effect.
The channel vanished from British television screens two weeks ago as a result of EU sanctions but Ofcom’s decision makes it almost impossible for it to return to the UK.
The decision does not stop RT, formerly known as Russia Today, publishing online output aimed at British audiences – which often reached larger audiences than the television channel – as Ofcom regulates only broadcast outlets.
RT faced 29 investigations by Ofcom into specific breaches of British impartiality rules over its coverage of the war in Ukraine. The channel had portrayed the invasion as a peacekeeping mission to protect pro-Russian breakaway states.
But Ofcom said it instead made the unusually quick decision to revoke RT’s licence because of Russia’s introduction of laws that criminalised journalistic output that departed from the Russian state’s narrative, “especially in relation to the invasion of Ukraine”.
“We consider that given these constraints it appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules of our broadcasting code in the circumstances,” the regulator said.
The Guardian understands the parent company that produces RT’s UK-based output is in the process of being liquidated, with British-based staff expecting to lose their jobs. The television channel’s studios at Millbank Tower in Westminster were being emptied of equipment on Thursday afternoon.
The BBC had been concerned that its operations in Russia could be severely curtailed as part of a tit-for-tat retribution move if Ofcom revoked RT’s licence. The corporation has curtailed its Russian-language reporting but continues with
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