Héloïse Goy, with Alexis Patri 10:51 a.m., February 24, 2022

The British government is reviewing the license granted in the United Kingdom to RT UK, the local version of the Russian public channel RT.

A decision that Boris Johnson's Defense Minister justifies by explaining that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have, in his own words, "lost the ball". 

This information, which fell on Wednesday, before even Vladimir Putin launched a military attack against Ukraine overnight.

The British government is reviewing the license granted in the country to the Russian public broadcaster RT.

In detail, Boris Johnson's government has asked OFCOM (the British regulator, the equivalent of ARCOM) to review the license granted to the English version of the Russian-funded news channel.

The British Minister of Defense judged that Vladimir Putin had "lost the ball". 

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Threat of "retaliatory measures"

Ofcom assured AFP that it would not hesitate to "step in" if its rules on accuracy or impartiality were breached by the licensee.

A spokesman for OFCOM added that "given the seriousness of the crisis in Ukraine, we will give priority to examining complaints relating to the coverage of this issue by any broadcasting company".

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Frédéric Taddeï leaves his show on RT France "out of loyalty to France"

Earlier this month, Germany banned RT from broadcasting on its territory.

To retaliate, Moscow has decided to close the bureau of German radio and television Deutsche Welle.

Faced with this new warning from the UK to RT, the Kremlin hinted that the BBC could also close in Russia.

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that "if the UK carries out its threat to the Russian media, retaliatory measures will not be long in coming."