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Kremlin points to questions over BBC’s biased coverage

On December 21, the Russian media watchdog launched probes into the BBC’s websites and the BBC World News channel

© EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. There are a lot of questions concerning the BBC’s biased coverage of events, particularly those taking place in Russia and Syria, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Many have questions to ask the BBC concerning its biased coverage of some events, as they are covered not like a media outlet should do but in a pre-programmed and biased way," Peskov said.

Read also

Russian media watchdog to probe into BBC websites following Ofcom’s decision on RT

The presidential spokesman added that various Russian state agencies had questions to ask about certain BBC programs and the coverage of events happening in Russia and Syria.

Peskov agreed that the Russian media watchdog’s probes into the BBC could be considered as a tit-for-tat response to British media regulator Ofcom’s decision on the Russian RT TV channel.

"Not anyone can blame a broadcasting company. Only an authorized agency is eligible to do it. This is what is happening," Peskov added.

When asked whether one of the problems with the BBC concerned a report saying that RT Chief Editor Margarita Simonyan’s sister Alisa was involved in major PR projects, he said he had not seen that information.

On December 20, British media regulator Ofcom said RT had broken impartiality rules in seven programs in the spring of 2018 and added that it was considering imposing a statutory sanction. The programs in question concerned the Salisbury poisoning incident, chemical weapons use allegations against the Syrian government, the United States’ foreign policy and the situation in Ukraine. According to Ofcom, the programs were not balanced enough.

On Friday, the Russian media watchdog launched probes into the BBC’s websites and the BBC World News channel in order to figure out whether their content is consistent with Russian laws.

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