Britain Opens New Probes Into Impartiality Of RT Broadcasts

Britain's media regulator says it has opened three new investigations into broadcasts made by the state-sponsored news channel RT in April and May.

"We have opened three further investigations into the due impartiality of news and current-affairs programs broadcast on RT," an Ofcom spokesperson said in a statement on May 21.

The latest probes add to seven investigations launched in April into whether the channel breached impartiality rules in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain in March.

Ofcom said at the time that there had been a "significant increase" in the number of RT broadcasts that caused concern since the nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

"Our broadcasts are an endless source of Ofcom investigations. No matter what they pick at, they can't find anything, but they don't give up hope," RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan said on Twitter on May 21.

Britain blames Russian President Vladimir Putin's government for the attack in the English city of Salisbury, which has added still more tension to already severely strained relations between Moscow and the West.

Moscow denies any involvement in the poisoning.

Based on reporting by FT and Reuters