UK regulator mulls fine for RT for Ukraine news coverage

Ofcom launched 29 investigations into 15 RT News bulletins on February 27, March 1 and March 2 after complaints from viewers and its own monitoring. (Shutterstock/File)

• RT is no longer broadcasting in Britain, after Ofcom revoked its license on March 18, saying it was not “fit and proper” to operate in the country.

LONDON: Britain’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom on Monday said Russian state-funded channel RT breached impartiality rules 29 times in just four days after the invasion of Ukraine.
Ofcom launched 29 investigations into 15 RT News bulletins on February 27, March 1 and March 2 after complaints from viewers and its own monitoring.
It also looked at a documentary, “Donbass Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” which was repeated on March 1 and 2.
“In each case, we found that RT’s coverage failed to preserve due impartiality in relation to the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine,” the regulator said.
“Ofcom considers that these breaches were serious and repeated, and we are minded to consider them for the imposition of a statutory sanction.”
RT is no longer broadcasting in Britain, after Ofcom revoked its license on March 18, saying it was not “fit and proper” to operate in the country.
The British government on March 31 announced sanctions against TV-Novosti, which owns RT, accusing it and other Russian “propagandists” of spreading “lies and deceit” about the invasion.
Ofcom previously fined RT £200,000 ($240,000) for “serious failures” in its coverage of the 2018 nerve agent poisonings blamed on Russia in the English city of Salisbury and of the Syria conflict.