Russia Today off the air in Sri Lanka

The Russia Today ( RT) international news channel has gone off the air in Sri Lanka.

The Russian state controlled channel was telecast in the country via Dialog TV. However, it suddenly went off the air this week and its slot has been taken over by German broadcaster DW-TV (Deutsche Welle).

“Dialog is not receiving the relevant satellite feed. We regret any inconvenience caused,” a Dialog TV official said in response to a query by the Sunday Times.

An industry source said Sri Lanka obtains its satellite feed from India, so any interruption or suspension of the feed would have occurred at that end and networks here had no say on the matter.

RT is among several Russian Government backed media outlets whose coverage has been restricted in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The outlets have been accused by western governments of spreading disinformation and acting as propaganda for the Kremlin.

The crackdown has now spread beyond Europe, with YouTube announcing on Friday that it was now blocking access to YouTube channels associated with Russian state-funded media globally. “This change is effective immediately,” the company said. The affected YouTube channels belong to Russian networks RT and Sputnik.

Users in Sri Lanka too are now no longer able to access the YouTube channels of these networks. Anyone clicking on them will receive the message “This channel is not available in your country.”