Lithuania blocks pro-Kremlin TV channel broadcasting from UK
LITHUANIA has unilaterally blocked a television channel that was using Britain as a hub to broadcast pro-Kremlin propaganda into the Baltic state, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose, as Labour highlighted examples of Russia Today’s “distorted” coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania, the country’s broadcasting watchdog, suspended the transmission of six Russianlanguage channels, including Pirmais Baltijas Kanals Lietuva (PBK), which transmitted programmes into Lithuania using a licence provided by Ofcom.
Together with Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania fears it could also be targeted by Vladimir Putin in the wake of his decision to invade Ukraine – a move that would trigger Nato’s collective defence mechanism and draw Britain into the conflict.
The Lithuanian watchdog accused the channels of broadcasting material that amounted to a “threat to national security and territorial integrity, instigation and propaganda of war and incitement to national hatred related to Russia’s declared war against Ukraine”.
PBK is registered at an office in central London, to Reveno Media Ltd, a company previously called Baltic Media Alliance Ltd but renamed after Ofcom imposed a £20,000 fine on the firm for breaching broadcasting rules over a broadcast about the Salisbury poisonings in 2018.
Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s content group director, said the watchdog liaised “very closely” with its European counterparts.
But he added: “Ofcom has a statutory responsibility and a firm belief in the freedom of the press and freedom of expression, and that isn’t universally the same across all nations.”
Separately, Labour repeated its call for Ofcom, the UK regulator to review the Russian state-owned broadcaster Russia Today, after RT reported that the Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine would be “liberated” by Russian forces.
‘These channels threaten national security and incite hatred related to Russia’s war against Ukraine’