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‘Transparent reasons’ needed: OSCE weighs in on RT spat with YouTube over account removal

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro wants to underline the importance for all stakeholders to take into account the freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information when deciding to remove an account from a channel, the RFoM’s office said

VIENNA, September 29. /TASS/. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro believes it necessary that freedom of access to information must be considered when deciding to delete any media channels from any resource, additionally, the reasons behind the decisions must be transparent, Ribeiro’s office told TASS on Wednesday when asked to evaluate YouTube’s removal of RT’s German-language channels.

"The OSCE RFoM wants to underline the importance for all stakeholders to take into account the freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information when deciding to remove an account from a channel, and to be transparent about the reasons for taking such a decision," the RFoM’s office said.

On Tuesday, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said that the video-sharing platform YouTube had removed two German-language channels (RT DE and DFP). The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had taken place "with the open and covert support of the German authorities and local media".