Friday 17th December 2021
No license for live program
Proceedings initiated against sender RT
The station RT – formerly Russia Today – is considered the Kremlin’s propaganda tool. In Germany he would like to expand his offer and is starting a live program. This blocks YouTube after a few hours. Now media regulators are on the scene.
German media regulators have initiated proceedings against the Russian state medium RT because of the start of a German-language live program. The background to this is that no broadcasting license has been granted by German regulators. The director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority, Eva Flecken, announced: “There is no question that this is broadcasting.” For this program, the media authority had neither applied for nor granted a broadcasting license.
“We have therefore initiated a formal procedure today. The organizer has until the end of the year to comment on the matter.” On Thursday, the Russian broadcaster started a new German-language live TV program via several distribution channels. After a few hours, YouTube blocked the channel on its platform and relied on community guidelines.
RT – formerly Russia Today – wants to expand its offer in Germany and has been working on a German-language TV program for a long time. RT DE has a location in Berlin. TV providers require a broadcasting license for nationwide programs in Germany. The route of distribution does not matter. The admission requirement is, among other things, that the constitutional principle of broadcasting remote from the state may not be violated, i.e. a state or a party may not exert any influence on the program content.
RT is repeatedly criticized in the West as the Kremlin’s propaganda tool. Central allegation: The station spreads conspiracy theories and disinformation on behalf of the Russian state. RT rejects that. The broadcaster has several foreign language programs in its portfolio. RT DE has been offering online reports in German for a long time. The content is disseminated via the website and social media. An attempt to get a broadcast license for the new live program through the Luxembourg authorities failed. Luxembourg pointed out that Germany was responsible. According to its own statements, RT is now relying on a Serbian broadcast license for cable and satellite transmission.