RT Being 'Squeezed Out' Of US For Reporting Facts Inconvenient For Washington - Moscow

Faizan Hashmi Published October 17, 2018 | 07:40 PM

The RT broadcaster faces pressure in the United States aimed at squeezing Russian media out of the US market over reporting facts that are inconvenient for Washington, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) The RT broadcaster faces pressure in the United States aimed at squeezing Russian media out of the US market over reporting facts that are inconvenient for Washington, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

On Monday, RT informed that it had been excluded from the broadcast networks of two US providers - Spectrum and Comcast Chicago. Commenting on the situation, the broadcaster's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said that attempts to "squeeze" the channel out of the broadcast programming resulted in the growth of its audience on other platforms.

"Obviously, we are talking about the ongoing systematic squeezing of the RT broadcaster and other Russian media. I recall that we are talking in particular about blocking an alternative outlook on some international events, on voicing facts that are inconvenient for political structures in Washington," Zakharova said at a briefing.

Such attempts violate the US commitment to the freedom of press and Moscow will continue to closely monitor the developments around Russian media in the United States, the spokeswoman noted.

In November, the US Department of Justice ordered the broadcaster's branch in the United States � RT America � to register as a "foreign agent" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). At the same time, many other media outlets, including BBC, China's CCTV, France 24, and Deutsche Welle are not registered as such. Later that month, RT's accreditation to the US Congress was revoked.

Simonyan pointed out at the time that RT's registration as a "foreign agent" put the broadcaster at a disadvantage compared to other foreign media outlets working in the United States.