Russian regulator retaliates against Ofcom with legal checks on BBC
Russia's media regulator has said it will carry out checks on the BBC following an announcment from Ofcom that it was considering imposing sanctions on Russian state-financed media service RT.
The Russian regulator, Roskomnadzor, released a statement on Friday saying it would check whether the BBC's World Service and internet sites complied with Russian law.
“The results of our check will be announced separately,” the Russian regulator said.
It took issue in particular with its coverage of the poisoning in Britain of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which the UK believes was the work of Russia's intelligence service, although Moscow denies the allegations.
RT rejected the findings and claimed that Ofcom had failed to pay "due regards" to its rights and ignored its explanations.
Its editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, took to Twitter to criticise Ofcom and hinted that RT could lose its broadcasting licence in Britain.
“(Welcome to the) brave new world,” she said.
“I assume they (the Russian regulator) will now look to see if the BBC expresses alternative points of view. With a microscope.”
In the last few days Russian state media has accused the BBC of attempting to prove Moscow was involved in igniting the street protests across France, which it also denied.