Russian TV stations show propaganda using UK bases
RUSSIAN-OWNED television stations are using Britain as a hub to broadcast Kremlin propaganda and conspiracy theories about the Salisbury attack across Europe, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
Two stations identified by EU officials as spreading “conspiracies” about “foreign politicians” are transmitting programmes from Russia to former Soviet republics with licences provided by Ofcom. Both are registered at offices in central London.
The broadcasts are causing serious concerns among Britain’s allies in countries that neighbour Russia, with one senior diplomat warning of a “strong disinformation campaign” being run through the channels, akin to the efforts launched by the Kremlin after funding rebel groups in eastern Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to stir up unrest among Russian-speaking minorities.
One channel has been found to have breached Ofcom rules eight times in the last six years, but continues to operate using its British licence. The breaches included an item urging viewers to sign a petition triggering a referendum on changing the Latvian constitution, along with a false claim that the message was endorsed by the Latvian electoral commission.
It was also found in breach over comments by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a Russian nationalist politician, broadcast in 2015, saying that Russia should “burn Kiev down”. “We will napalm them out,” he said.
Baiba Braže, Latvia’s ambassador to the UK, said Ofcom needed to “do more” to tackle the stations, and called for changes to EU rules to allow local regulators to intervene.
Ofcom is reviewing the licences of Russia Today, the Kremlin-backed channel which broadcasts in the UK, but Ms Braže suggested the regulator had long failed to take effective action against worse offenders which made use of British licences to broadcast into the EU, but were not shown in this country. They were broadcasting “pure propaganda”, she said.
EU regulations allow broadcasters to transmit throughout the union if they
are registered in just one member state. The regulator in the “country of origin”, in this case the UK, is solely responsible for policing each broadcaster registered in its country, regardless of where the programmes are transmitted.
Ofcom has been lobbying for the “country of origin” principle to remain in place after Brexit, boasting that Britain is home to “the world’s largest number of pan-European media companies”.
Almost 400 of the 1,200 UK-licensed channels do not broadcast in this country, but Sharon White, the regulator’s chief executive, said in a speech last year that they must still “comply with our rules” which include broadcasting “impartial and accurate news”.
The disclosure that broadcasters are using the UK system to transmit proKremlin propaganda across Europe is likely to embarrass the regulator and fuel concerns that Britain has long been seen as a “soft touch” on Russia.
EU versus Disinformation, a website set up by the EU’s diplomatic service to tackle Kremlin propaganda, has highlighted how pro-Kremlin broadcasters have “peddled multiple, unsubstantiated and often absurd conspiracy theories” about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former spy, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury earlier this month, which the British Government has blamed on Russia.
The website described how one UKlicensed broadcaster, NTV, which is part-owned by Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, questioned the existence of Novichok, the Russianmade nerve agent the Government concluded poisoned that the Skripals. Another it identifies as a source of “disinformation” is REN TV, which has claimed the September 11 attacks were orchestrated by the US.
REN TV and NTV are both permitted to broadcast in Europe as a result of several Ofcom licences, all of which are registered to the Baltic Media Alliance Ltd ( BMA) at the same address in Tottenham Court Road, central London.
In response to questions from this newspaper, BMA said last night: “We regret to having been unable to comment on your urgent letter half full of gravely distorted or incorrect information and half of rumours and other unverifiable statements by yourself.”
It denied having “any relation” to “Russian official bodies/persons or state-controlled companies of Russia” and said its channels fully complied with Ofcom’s regulations.
Both channels spread “disinformation about conspiracies between Russian NGOs and foreign politicians and diplomats,” according to a posting on the EU website last week.
Ms Braže cited both broadcasters as examples of those transmitting the “wildest” claims about the involvement of British security services in the nerve-agent attack on the Skripals.
She told The Sunday Telegraph: “These are not Russia Today, which is meant for foreign audiences, these are pure propaganda channels. We have seen quite a strong disinformation campaign which is continuing.
“It’s the Russian TV channels that are broadcasting within Russia. Because that particular regulator [Ofcom] cannot see those channels because
‘It’s total propaganda, black lies and anti-Western, antiBritish, anti-US. There’s more that Ofcom can do’
they do not broadcast here then they cannot really do anything about it.
“It’s us who sees them. It’s total propaganda, black lies and anti-Western, anti-British, anti-US. “There’s more that Ofcom can do.” EU versus Disinformation details how “NTV questioned the authenticity of Novichok: it was a KGB ruse and Mirzayanov [the Russian defector who revealed its existence] fell for it… Or, whatever it was, it was destroyed under verification by the USSR’.”
One opinion piece on NTV’s website, by Andrey Dobrov, an NTV presenter, states that Britain’s reaction to the “mysterious incident in the small town of Salisbury” is down to rising Euroscepticism and other concerns prompting Europeans to “look for an external insidious enemy”.
Ofcom is understood to have called BMA in for a meeting last year following eight breaches of the code between 2011 and 2016.
An Ofcom spokesman said it took “swift enforcement action” when licensees broke rules.
Russia Today said that it continued to adhere to all Ofcom standards.