The US Justice Department has asked Russian broadcaster RT to register its American operations as a “foreign agent,” putting fresh pressure on a major media group that Washington regards as Moscow’s propaganda arm.
RT said late Monday that the company that supplies all the services for its RT America channel was told by the DOJ in a letter that it is obligated to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, an act aimed at lobbyists and lawyers representing foreign political interests.
RT is “consulting with our lawyers and are reviewing the request,” the broadcaster’s spokeswoman Anna Belkina told AFP on Tuesday.
On its website, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan condemned the move as part of a US “war” on Russian media.
“The war the US establishment wages with our journalists is dedicated to all the starry-eyed idealists who still believe in freedom of speech. Those who invented it, have buried it,”
