RT accounts blocked in UK

MOSCOW. — The Russia Today broadcaster’s accounts have been blocked in the United Kingdom, Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said yesterday, suggesting that the move stifles free speech.“Our accounts in the UK have been closed. All Accounts. ‘The decision is not subject to revision’. Long live freedom of speech!” Simonyan said in a Twitter post.

Following Simonyan’s statement on Twitter earlier in the day, RT UK said it had been informed by the National Westminster Bank that it “will no longer provide” banking arrangements with the broadcaster.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commenting on the RT blocked accounts said that it seems like London has abandoned all of its freedom of speech obligations.

“It seems that leaving the EU, London has left all its freedom of speech obligations in Europe. As they say, a new life without bad habits,” Zakharova said in a Facebook post.

RT UK added that National Westminster Bank said its parent organisation Royal Bank of Scotland Group would refuse to service the broadcaster without “any discussion”.

“We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities,” NatWest said in a letter to RT’s London office.

Journalist Roshan Salih has also faced pressure from the UK government when he worked for Iranian media organisation Press TV. Salih said that seeing RT’s situation was like deja vu, as it was only a few years prior that he and his colleagues had faced a similar situation.

“It’s a political decision and its designed to impede on your ability to operate, it’s a direct attack on freedom of speech as ultimately, if you attack the source of an organisation’s finances, you will eventually squeeze them and inhibit their ability to operate and to communicate effectively . . . that is what happened to Press TV.

“Compared to how we operated in the UK before the sanctions were imposed and our bank accounts (were) shut down, we were much more of an effective voice, so it’s all about silencing Russia Today basically,” Salih told Sputnik.

Salih explains that there are a number of state-run TV news outlets around the world, from Al Jazeera, to France 24, TRT and of course Press TV, but the government’s focus seems directed at specific countries.

“It seems the only state media that are allowed to operate in this country are the ones who the British government seems to agree with. So there won’t be any attack on TRT, or France 24 and Al Jazeera. But the ones that are targeted are the ones that the British government has a problem with and that is Russia and Iran,” Salih told Sputnik.

Asked if the blocking of RT’s bank accounts had been a decision made by the bank or the state, Mr Salih was adamant that it was the UK government who had enforced this decision.

“They (the UK government) are putting pressure on them (banks). You ask them (the banks) for the reasons and they won’t give the reasons. There is only one logical explanation and that is that the state is putting pressure on them,” Salih said.

Is it worth for the broadcaster to take the bank to court?

“Our experience with Press TV is that it was a pointless exercise in terms of getting any results as the sanctions are tighter and even though the nuclear deal is signed the sanctions are still in place.

“But I think for the purposes of setting the record straight and public relations, it’s a process that RT need to go through. Also Russia is more powerful then Iran.

“Britain can ignore Iran, whereas Russia has many more levers and is a more powerful global player than Iran is, so perhaps Russia can enact those levers to put pressure back onto the British. Also from my point of view, as someone who works in the media, I wonder what implications this will have for the British state organisations that operate in Moscow, surely there will be some reciprocal move from Moscow to hinder their ability to operate and I think this is only fair,” Salih said. — Sputnik News.

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