Moscow – Russia’s communications regulator on Tuesday accused the BBC World News channel of flouting Russian broadcasting rules and said a court would hear its detailed complaints later this month.
Britain’s ties with Russia are at post Cold War lows over the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a mole who betrayed hundreds of Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service.
Britain said Russian military intelligence poisoned Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok.
Russia repeatedly denied any involvement and said Britain staged the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
Moscow has repeatedly told London that British media like the BBC should expect consequences if Russia’s state-financed RT television channel encounters difficulties in Britain.
Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, in 2019 fined RT for breaching impartiality rules in broadcasts over the Skripal poisoning, the conflict in Syria and Ukraine’s polices on Nazism and gypsies.
Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said the BBC had failed to label violent or upsetting content with the correct age certificate and had not submitted copies of its content to the Russian authorities on time.
Moscow could hit the BBC with two fines of up to 200,000 roubles (3,050 dollars) for the first offense and up to 20,000 roubles for the second.
“The court hearing is due on March 12,’’ Roskomnadzor said.
The BBC, however, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reuters/NAN)