Ofcom has found that Russian broadcaster RT’s coverage in the wake of country’s invasion of Ukraine breached due impartiality rules on 29 occasions in four days.
The TV watchdog, which revoked the channel’s UK broadcast licence in March, said it is considering the cases for “the imposition of a statutory sanction”.
Its investigation looked at 15 RT News bulletins on February 27 – the week of the invasion – as well as 12 on March 1 and one on March 2.
The documentary Donbass Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow, which was repeated across March 1 and 2, was also found to have breached rules.
We found that RT’s coverage failed to preserve due impartiality in relation to the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine— Ofcom
Ofcom said in a statement: “In each case, we found that RT’s coverage failed to preserve due impartiality in relation to the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
“Ofcom considers that these breaches were serious and repeated, and we are minded to consider them for the imposition of a statutory sanction.”
Ofcom noted that broadcasters must comply with its broadcasting code when dealing with “major matters such as wars or areas of conflict” and that this included giving “due weight to a wide range of significant views”.
In March, Ofcom ruled that RT’s licensee, ANO TV Novosti, was “not fit and proper” to hold a broadcast licence in the UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was among those who had called for a review of the Kremlin-backed channel in the wake of the Russian invasion.
It comes after dozens of UK journalists and media were sanctioned in June over what Russia called their alleged “deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information”.
Among those on the list of 29 individuals were BBC director-general Tim Davie, The Times’ editor John Witherow, The Guardian’s editor-in-chief Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph Chris Evans, BBC chairman Richard Sharp, and managing director of The Independent, Christian Broughton.
