British media in Russia have been warned to prepare themselves for the consequences after Ofcom fined RT £200,000 for a breach of impartiality rules.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it is “closely monitoring the development of the situation” in response to the UK watchdog’s decision over the Kremlin-backed broadcaster on Friday.
Ofcom ruled that news channel RT failed to preserve due impartiality in seven news and current affairs programmes between March 17 and April 26 2018.
The programmes were mostly in relation to major matters of political controversy and current public policy – namely the UK Government’s response to the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury, and the Syrian conflict.
We have fined RT £200,000 for serious failures to comply with our broadcasting rules – and required the channel to broadcast a summary of our findings to its viewers: https://t.co/PevBEbeAAE
— Ofcom (@Ofcom) July 26, 2019
In a statement on social media, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it will “remind British media working in Russia that they should be ready to face the consequences” following the actions from London.
They said that the actions from the broadcasting watchdog were part of an “anti-Russian campaign in the UK”.
In December, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor launched an investigation into the BBC’s websites and World News channel over alleged violations of Russian law.
It came the day after Ofcom warned it was considering sanctions against RT for breaching its impartiality rules.
Two of the seven RT programmes ruled to have breached impartiality featured former MP George Galloway.
An Ofcom spokeswoman said: “RT’s failings were a serious breach of our due impartiality rules, which protect public trust in news and other programmes.”
Diplomatic relations between the UK and Russian governments became icy following the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March 2018.
The broadcasting regulator said that RT’s breaches represented serious and repeated failures of compliance with its rules, and that they were particularly concerned by the frequency of its rule-breaking over a relatively short period of time.
Ofcom has directed RT to broadcast a summary of its findings in a form and on dates to be determined by the watchdog.
The news channel has said it is considering legal options over the sanctions.
A statement from RT said: “It is very wrong for Ofcom to have issued a sanction against RT on the basis of its breach findings that are currently under Judicial Review by the High Court in London.
“RT went to court over Ofcom’s December findings against our network because we believe that they were reached in a manner contrary to the law and were wrong.
“Last month we received confirmation from a judge at a hearing in the High Court that, despite Ofcom’s opposition, our case against Ofcom should proceed.
“And while we continue to contest the very legitimacy of the breach decisions themselves, we find the scale of proposed penalty to be particularly inappropriate and disproportionate per Ofcom’s own track record.
“It is notable that cases that involved hate speech and incitement to violence have been subject to substantially lower fines.
“It is astonishing that, in contrast, Ofcom sees RT’s programmes – which it thought should have presented more alternative points of view – as worthy of greater sanction than programmes containing hate speech and incitement to violence.
“We are duly considering further legal options.”