British court confirms large fine for Russian TV channel RT | News from Germany about Europe | DW

A court in the UK confirmed the legality of the decision of the national media regulator Ofcom, which in 2019 fined the Russian TV channel RT (formerly Russia Today). The seven stories aired by RT in the spring of 2018 violated the principles of impartiality, the London Court of Appeal said on Tuesday, October 26.

Appellate judge Jeffrey Vos indicated that he personally watched all the stories and confirmed that “they were all biased and unbalanced.” “Apparently, this was the intent,” he added. Thus, Ofcom’s fine of 200 thousand pounds sterling (in terms of almost 240 thousand euros) against RT remains in effect.

Plots about the poisoning of the Skripals, the war in Syria and the Ukrainian conflict

The proceedings concerned the items aired between March 17 and April 26. These are two newscasts, three Crosstalk programs and two Sputnik programs. Among other things, the topics of the programs were the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, US foreign policy and the Ukrainian conflict.

In December of the same year, Ofcom pointed out violations, and in July 2019, RT was fined. At the same time, the regulator noted that it will not demand the payment of 200 thousand pounds until the completion of all the necessary legal procedures. In response, Roskomnadzor announced a similar audit to the BBC.

In turn, RT claims that the amount of the fine is overstated and is seriously different from those that are issued to other channels, and for more serious claims, for example, for inciting hatred and incitement to violence.

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