Russia shuts DW's Moscow bureau
04 February 2022, 09:21 pm | Updated: 22 November 2024, 03:55 am
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced that it is shutting down the Moscow office of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle and withdrawing its staff’s accreditations, in retaliation for a German move against Russian state RT TV, reports AP.
A ministry statement said the decision was “the first stage” of measures in response to Germany ordering RT to cease broadcasting its German-language programs in the country earlier this week.
The statement said Deutsche Welle will stop broadcasting in Russia, and staff accreditations to work will be withdrawn. It added that authorities will “initiate the procedure” of declaring Deutsche Welle a “foreign agent” — a designation that carries additional government scrutiny and strong pejorative connotations aimed at discrediting the recipient.
In the past year, dozens of Russian media outlets and individual journalists have been slapped with the “foreign agent” label, with some saying it has proved crippling for their operation.
