MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. RT DE Productions has asked Berlin’s Federal Administrative Court to lift the broadcasting ban on the RT DE channel in Germany, RT's Telegram channel reported on Wednesday.

"RT DE Productions GmbH appealed to the Federal Administrative Court in Berlin to cancel the unlawful decision of the German regulator MABB, which banned the broadcasting of RT DE channel in Germany," the report said.

The company's representative, whose comments are quoted in the report, stressed that RT DE Productions provides services to ANO TV News exclusively as a producer of content and is not responsible for RT DE broadcasting. "MABB representatives claim that RT DE Productions is responsible for broadcasting RT DE, ignoring the fact that in reality this channel is broadcast by ANO TV-Novosti from Moscow," he said.

On February 2, the Commission on Licensing and Supervision banned the broadcasting of the RT DE TV channel in Germany since there was no required license under the media law. According to the document, RT DE, which requires a broadcasting license under German law, was neither granted nor requested permission. It, therefore, ordered the channel to halt broadcasting on-air, on the Internet, via mobile apps, and over satellite.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced earlier that Moscow was shutting down Deutsche Welle’s news bureau in Russia as its first round of tit-for-tat measures following the German regulator’s move to bar RT DE in Germany. Other measures will include cancelling the credentials of all staff members at Deutsche Welle’s Russian bureau and the launch of a process aimed at identifying German government and public agencies involved in the RT DE broadcasting ban and that otherwise exert all sorts of pressure on the Russian media operator. Moscow vows that those involved in the RT DE banning scandal will be barred from entering Russia.