RT ready to ‘keep fighting’ for German channel amid ‘unprecedented pressure,' deputy editor-in-chief insists
RT will “fight” for its German channel’s right to broadcast regardless of “what tomorrow will bring” even amid “unprecedented pressure." That's according to the network's deputy editor-in-chief, who says the law is on its side.
Anna Belkina insisted on Friday that new accusations against the broadcaster do not hold water, amid a renewed attack on RT DE by regulatory officials.
Earlier on Friday, the boss of the EU's European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA, Tobias Schmid, called the newly launched channel a “nuisance” that needs to be dealt with as he questioned its right to broadcast. He was speaking to Germany's Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) radio.
Hours after he made that statement, local German media regulator MABB informed Berlin-based DE Productions about opening a court case.
Belkina believes, however, that the law is on RT’s side. “The legal action is being launched against RT DE Productions,” she said, adding that the lawsuit was filed over the fact that this production company had not applied for a broadcasting license in Germany or elsewhere in the European Union.
“RT DE Productions does not need a license because it is not a channel,” said Belkina, who is also RT’s deputy editor-in-chief, adding that RT DE Productions does not broadcast anything and only “makes some of the shows.” She also called the accusations leveled against the company “absolutely false.”
Belkina also said that Schmid got it all wrong when he claimed that RT DE was broadcasting from Berlin. RT DE news channel is based in Moscow, she explained, adding that it broadcasts its content via a license obtained in Serbia that gives it the right to broadcast in every country that recognizes the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT).
This allows RT to broadcast in 33 countries across the continent, including Germany, as well as other nations with a significant German-language population like Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, Belkina said.
“We are broadcasting in Germany … in accordance with absolutely all the laws and regulations of Europe,” she pointed out.
