Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Friday demanded that the video platform YouTube unblock the Kremlin’s propaganda TV channel in German.
YouTube blocked the German-language RT channel Auf Sendung again on Thursday after blocking two German RT channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part, in the autumn.
YouTube told AFP that Auf Sendung had been blocked because RT had tried to circumvent the ban imposed on RT DE and Der Fehlende Part.
These two channels were blocked from distributing false information about Covid-19.
Roskomnadzor said it had sent a letter to YouTube requesting that access to Auf Sendung be restored and that the reasons for the blocking be explained.
In a letter, YouTube’s decision to block the channel was described as destructive and unprecedented. The letter states that this violates the basic principles of free dissemination and unhindered access to information.
Roskomnadzor said it considered it an expression of censorship prohibited by the Russian constitution.
YouTube blocked RT DE and Der Fehlende Part from distributing false information about Covid-19 in September without the possibility of renewal. At the time, Moscow also called it censorship and said the ban was likely to have been supported by the German authorities.
Relations between Germany and Russia are currently strained by a decision by a Berlin court this week to sentence a Russian citizen to life imprisonment for a murder committed in Germany in 2019, which Berlin believes was ordered by Moscow.
The court ruling prompted Germany to expel two Russian diplomats. Moscow has promised a response.
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