MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. The head of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communication Leonid Levin dubbed the decision of the British media regulator to fine Russia’s RT news channel as politically motivated and urged the Russian regulatory agencies to check the British media outlets working in Russia for objectivity.
"It seems logical that the respective agencies pay attention and analyze impartiality of content produced by the UK media outlets that are operating on the territory of the Russian Federation," Levin’s press service quoted the politician as saying.
"Vague accusations of the violation of the principle of impartiality and objectivity along with a major fine imposed in an extrajudicial procedure, clearly point to ideological bias in the activity of the UK watchdog," the politician added.
According to him, these developments have demonstrated a confrontational bid of the UK authorities, defying an offer from the Russian side to establish a constructive dialogue and defuse tensions.
"The freedom of speech and the freedom of information — equal conditions for media of all types — are among the prerequisites for a democratic development of a society no matter which country this happens in," Levin summed up.
British media regulator Ofcom has fined Russia’s RT news channel 200,000 pounds for breaking broadcasting rules, Ofcom announced on Friday.
"Ofcom has today fined the news channel RT 200,000 pounds for serious failures to comply with our broadcasting rules — and required the channel to broadcast a summary of our findings to its viewers," the statement reads.
"Ofcom has rules in place requiring broadcast news to be presented with due impartiality. Our investigation found that RT failed to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programs between March 17 and April 26, 2018," the regulator added.
"Taken together, these breaches represented serious and repeated failures of compliance with our rules. We were particularly concerned by the frequency of RT’s rule-breaking over a relatively short period of time. The programs were mostly in relation to major matters of political controversy and current public policy — namely the UK Government’s response to the events in Salisbury, and the Syrian conflict," the statement adds.
Following the 2018 Salisbury poisoning incident, Ofcom launched ten investigations against RT, as many as in the past 11 years.