Kremlin slams Germanys move to ban RT DE as violation of freedom of speech – TASS

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. The Kremlin regrets Germanys decision to ban Russian state broadcaster RT DE, presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday.

"This situation is absolutely clear. The Russian media, I would even say, the international media are banned from broadcasting in Germany. This is nothing but an infringement on freedom of speech," the Kremlin spokesman noted. "We can only regret [this decision]," Peskov said.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman refrained from any comments on Russias retaliatory measures. "The foreign ministry will announce them, there is no need to skip ahead," he said.

The German media regulator has banned RT DE from broadcasting in German in Germany due to lack of a license, the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the document, RT DE, which requires a broadcasting license under German law, was neither granted nor requested permission. It therefore ordered the channel to halt broadcasting on-air, on the Internet, through the mobile app and through the satellite.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow would announce retaliatory measures on Thursday. The diplomatic service stated that the decision of the German authorities had left Moscow no choice but to implement retaliatory measures against German media accredited in Russia and some Internet intermediaries that groundlessly deleted the RT DEs accounts from their platforms.

Read the original here:

Kremlin slams Germanys move to ban RT DE as violation of freedom of speech - TASS