Germany Bans Broadcast of RT DE

On 17 December, German media regulator MABB launched an investigation into RT DE Productions GmbH after RT announced the launch of the RT DE news channel in German.

The German media regulator announced on 2 February that it was banning the German-language version of the Russian channel RT in the country.

"The broadcast of the RT DE channel", which can still be viewed on the website and mobile application, was "prohibited" because "the necessary authorization according to media law" was "neither requested nor granted", according to a statement from the federal agency ZAK.

RT DE productions to appeal German regulator's ban in court, RT deputy editor in chief Anna Belkina said.

Anna Belkina accused MABB of “ignoring facts, and painting a false reality to suit a clearly politically motivated threat” by denying that RT DE TV channel broadcasts are based in Moscow.

“It is ironic that just the idea of a new TV news channel with a different voice appearing in Germany has made the local authorities, including the regulator MABB, so nervous and desperate, as to abandon their much-touted principles such as freedom of speech,” she added.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan called a German regulator’s ban on the broadcasting of RT DE Productions in Germany "pure nonsense," adding that the channel will not stop broadcasting.

"The company [RT DE Productions] produces several programs for the RT DE TV channel, which broadcasts from Moscow and has full broadcast rights in Germany and 32 other European countries. This is pure nonsense. We will not stop broadcasting," Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel.

In December 2021, RT announced the launch of the RT DE news channel in German. The head of the German media regulator MABB, Eva Flecken, announced the start of an investigation against the RT broadcaster due to the launch of a program in German allegedly without a broadcast license. The European representative of the Directors' Conference of the Media Authorities, Tobias Schmid, said that RT DE was "irritant" and would "be taken care of."

The launch of RT DE has been surrounded by controversy in the European Union, with German media and politicians accusing the broadcaster of manipulations with facts targeting Germans of Russian origin. In August 2021, RT DE was refused a broadcasting license in Luxembourg after reportedly receiving a recommendation from the German authorities. In September, YouTube removed two RT DE channels without the right of recovery for alleged "violations of community rules."