The federal government expressed on Saturday its “concerns” about the country’s broadcasting of the Russian channel RT (ex-Russia Today), accused by its detractors of being a spokesperson for the Kremlin.
Regularly accused in the West of contributing to disinformation, RT is in the crosshairs of several European countries, especially since the invasion of Ukraine by the troops of Vladimir Putin.
“I share the concerns of many Canadians about the presence of Russia Today in our broadcasting system,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said on Twitter.
While calls are increasing in Canada to ban the broadcast of this Russian television channel, the minister, a close friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, assured: “we are exploring all options”.
Although “RT is currently on the list of approved non-Canadian services”, its broadcasting license is “a privilege (which can) be withdrawn”, warned Friday, in the newspaper The duty, the Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
A broadcast ban may be decided in particular in the event of a breach of the obligation to “present the news accurately and impartially”, recalled the CRTC, while RT is regularly accused of pro-Putin bias.
More and more countries have thus disconnected RT in recent weeks.
Friday, it is the main provider of access to television in Finland which stopped the broadcast. London, for its part, asked Wednesday for a review by the regulator Ofcom of the license granted to RT. And, in early February, Germany banned RT on its territory, prompting Moscow to close the office of German radio and television Deutsche Welle in Moscow.
Launched in 2005 as “Russia Today”, the Russian state-funded RT has grown with broadcasters and websites in multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.