BERLIN MOSCOW Reuters - The new German-language broadcast of Russia's international television station RT went off the air days after German authorities ruled that it did not have the license it needed to operate in the country.
The ban, which resulted in Eutelsat removing RT Deutsch from the list of channels broadcast from its satellites on Wednesday, came amid rising East-West tensions over energy supplies and Russian military activity on Ukraine's borders.
In 2005, at a time when many countries like Britain, France, Gulf states and Iran are beefing up their international public broadcasting operations, the state-owned RT is considered a propaganda outlet and is regarded by most Western governments as a propaganda outlet.
The broadcast is in German and targeted the German market, the broadcast authority for the German capital Berlin, where RT has offices, said in a statement. It did not apply for a broadcasting permit and neither was one issued. The live stream on Alphabet's YouTube has been removed from the channel, https: www.reuters. Business media-telecom russia-demands-youtube-restore rts-german language-channel - 2021 -- 12 - 17 shortly after its launch last Thursday, can still be watched live on its own website.
News from countries that have a difficult relationship with Moscow is often portrayed by RT as a sympathetic to Russian foreign policy.
What is the difference between a coronavirus and a civil war? There was a headline to a piece on the website on Wednesday that speculated about the possibility of mandatory vaccination in Germany.
Int en web conventions - council of europe-european convention on transfrontier-television ets-no 132 translations, a Council of Europe agreement that both countries are party to.
The German regulators' actions are considered to be illegal and we are convinced that this decision will be reviewed in court, an RT statement said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Western partners of strangling Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov earlier this month, saying https: "I don't exclude us having to react if this unacceptable situation continues." Despite high covid 19 rates - 2021 -- 12 -- 10 journalism in Russia was going through a dark valley with over a hundred journalists, media outlets, human rights defenders and non-governmental organisations branded foreign agents, a designation that can stifle access to funds.
Russian authorities say the foreign agents list is needed to protect the country from external influence.