Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has declared its potential intention to revoke the license of Russia’s RT television if London officially blames Moscow for the death of a former Russian agent.
Ofcom said on Tuesday that it had informed ANO TV Novosti, the holder of RT’s UK broadcast licenses, that it could lose the broadcasting license should Britain determine Russia played a role in poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the city of Salisbury earlier this month.
The regulator said that if such an involvement was revealed, it could mean that there was unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK. It reiterated that the Russian government was financing ANO TV Novosti and Ofcom had a duty to check that holders of broadcast licenses remain “fit and proper” to operate in Britain.
The ban on RT’s operation in the United Kingdom could render Ofcom as a media body which hardly tolerates narratives opposed to those of the…