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Moscow had promised “retaliatory measures” to German media on Wednesday, after RT’s ban in Germany. It is a huge blow to one of the most renowned Western media outlets in post-Soviet history.
On Thursday, February 3, Russia closed the Moscow office of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and revoked staff accreditations in Russia, in response to the German television regulator’s ban on the German-language channel of Russian state-run television Russia Today. (RT DE) the day before.
The retaliatory measures announced by Moscow on Thursday include the “interruption of broadcasts” of this medium on Russian territory. A “first step” according to the Kremlin, which promised a new response “in due time.”
He also said he would bar access to Russian territory to German officials implicated in the decision to close RT DE.
Russia calls DW a “foreign agent”
The Russian Foreign Ministry justified its initiative by the “unfriendly” measure adopted by Berlin against RT DE, calling Deutsche Welle a “foreign agent”.
This closure was announced at the height of the crisis between Moscow and Westerners over Ukraine, which fears a Russian invasion.
Previously, the video broadcasting platform YouTube had blocked several programs aimed at the German audience, considering that they violated the company’s terms and conditions.
Berlin called the Russian decision “unacceptable”
Upon Russia’s announcement, the German Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected “any comparison between Deutsche Welle and RT DE”, and deplored a “totally unfounded measure that represents a new blow to German-Russian relations.”
The Minister for Culture and the Media, Claudia Roth, reacted in the same way, calling the suspension of broadcasts by the German public channel “unacceptable”. In an official statement, Roth said the decision is “clearly” retaliatory.
For its part, the German media lamented that the Russian authorities used it “as a pawn, as the media only experience in autocracies,” it said.
Moscow orders closure of local office of #DeutscheWelle
Correspondents must leave Russia in retaliation for RT’s broadcast ban in Germany.
For the director general of DW, Peter Limbourg, it is an “overreaction of the Russian government”.#DWNews /cmw pic.twitter.com/X9aS57RBfQ
— DW Spanish (@dw_espanol) February 3, 2022
DW CEO Peter Limbourg announced that he will challenge the decision in court, to determine whether the measures announced Thursday by Moscow are permissible “even by Russian standards.”
In an interview published by the public channel, the director general spoke of an “exaggerated reaction” on the part of Russia, which shows that his government “is not interested in freedom of the press or freedom of opinion.”
The German Association of Journalists denounced “unjustified radical censorship” in a statement.
With AFP, Reuters and EFE