Russia bans Deutsche Welle in tit-for-tat move

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced a ban on German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Thursday, effectively ending the organization's work in Russia, closing its Moscow bureau and revoking the accreditation of its journalists.

Moscow's move came in swift retaliation for a decision on Wednesday by the Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK), the agency responsible for regulating media outlets in Germany, banning Russian state-owned TV channel RT DE from broadcasting in the country due to its lack of a licence.

RT - formerly Russia Today - broadcasts internationally in six languages and claims that its German-language programming contributes to the diversity of opinion in Europe. Critics meanwhile accuse RT of being a Kremlin mouthpiece used to disseminate propaganda and disinformation.

"The situation is perfectly clear: a Russian media outlet, I would even say an international media outlet, has been banned from broadcasting in Germany. This is nothing less than an attack on freedom of speech," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.

Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova had earlier in the day criticized the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for its silence following the German regulator's decision, accusing it of failing to stand up for media freedom.

At a meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in January, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed that all state broadcasting is banned in Germany due to the central role the state media played under Nazism.

The move was anticipated by many observers. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan had proposed making moves against Deutsche Welle earlier in the day, while the Foreign Ministry has in the past repeatedly threatened to take action against German media outlets and their correspondents in Moscow.

Deutsche Welle, or DW, is a German state-owned 24-hour news channel funded by the federal tax budget. It airs programming in German, English, Spanish and Arabic.