Russia has stated it shut down the operations of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in response to Berlin’s ban on Russian broadcaster RT DE.
Russia‘s overseas ministry stated in an announcement on Thursday that it was closing Deutsche Welle’s Russian bureau, stripping all its workers of their accreditation, and stopping the channel being broadcast on Russian territory.
Germany‘s MABB media watchdog and Fee for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) of media establishments stated this week that RT DE couldn’t broadcast in Germany utilizing a Serbian licence.
Moscow additionally stated it will begin proceedings that might see it declared a “overseas agent”, a designation that carries a unfavorable Soviet-era connotation.
The Russian overseas ministry additionally stated it will bar entry to Russia for German officers concerned within the transfer to ban RT DE.
Germany‘s overseas ministry stated Moscow’s measures had “no foundation by any means and characterize a renewed pressure on German-Russian relations.”
“We firmly reject the comparability between Deutsche Welle and the broadcaster RT DE,” a spokesperson for the ministry stated in an announcement.
In an announcement on its web site detailing its retaliatory measures, Russia‘s overseas ministry described the German transfer as “unfriendly”.
The row comes amid wider tensions with the West over Ukraine which can be an early take a look at of political relations between Berlin and Moscow after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took workplace in December.
The Kremlin stated earlier on Thursday {that a} journey by Scholz to Moscow was on the agenda, however {that a} date was not but confirmed.
State-funded Deutsche Welle stated it formally protested in opposition to the transfer and would take authorized motion. “We’re being made a pawn right here in a means that media solely must expertise in autocracies,” Deutsche Welle Director Peter Limbourg stated in an announcement.
Hendrik Wuest, premier of North Rhine-Westfalia state the place Deutsche Welle is headquartered, referred to as Russia‘s motion “a large and deliberate assault on the liberty of press, which we strongly condemn”.
German journalist affiliation DJV referred to as on Russian President Vladimir Putin to instantly raise the ban on Deutsche Welle. “There isn’t a justification for this drastic censorship measure,” stated DJV chair Frank Ueberall in an announcement.
(Reuters)