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‘Tone-deaf on the role of journalism’

A German regulator’s depiction of RT DE as an “irritant” to be disposed of is both humorous and ignorant about the role of journalism in covering power, said Pulitzer Prize-winning American reporter Chris Hedges.

“Of course”Hedges said that German regulators are trying to pursue the Berlin-based production firm politically. He compared it with the interference by the US and the removal of RT America from cable channels following the 2017 US spy report.


RT ready to ‘keep fighting’ for its German channel amid ‘unprecedented pressure’ – deputy editor-in-chief

Infamous intelligence community assessment “attacked RT for giving a voice to third-party candidates, anti-fracking activists, Black Lives Matter,”Hedges

He also pointed out the treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and said his own coverage of Assange’s imprisonment and extradition has been suppressed by social networks.

Hedges said he “actually laughed”At the statement of Tobias Schmid (current chair, European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services – ERGA), who called RT DE a “nuisance”Or an “irritant”This needed to be dealt with. According to the American, Schmid’s remark showed “how utterly naive and tone-deaf he was about the role of journalism.” 

“Journalists who are not an ‘irritant’ to people in power are called propagandists,” Hedges said. “We should always have an adversarial relationship to power. It’s what journalism is about.”

EXPLAINER: EU regulators’ case against RT DE unfair: Here’s why

Hedges was a 15-year veteran of The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for 2002 coverage of the War on Terrorism. He left the paper in 2005, after criticizing the US invasion of Iraq, and currently hosts ‘On Contact,’ a weekly show on RT America.

RT’s German-language service began broadcasting on Thursday from Moscow via Serbia. On Friday, authorities in Berlin-Brandenburg filed a lawsuit in court alleging that RT DE Productions was a German broadcaster and that it required a German licence. 

RT countered, claiming that the company does not produce content. Satellite broadcasting through Serbia is completely legal under the European Convention of Transfrontier Television. Germany signed the ECTT and ratified it.

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