Russia on Wednesday ordered the expulsion of two German journalists in retaliation for what it said was Germany’s move to close the Russian state broadcaster’s Berlin bureau, another chapter in the tit-for-tat between Russia and western media.
The German government denied that it closed the bureau of the Russian state broadcaster, Channel One. But it said the Russian journalists no longer had residency permits and directed questions to Berlin’s local government, which has jurisdiction over such permits.
The local government did not respond to inquiries about the case.
Christian Wagner, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry, said the German government had not and was not planning to close the office. “Russian journalists can report freely and unhindered in Germany,” he said at a government briefing, calling Moscow’s action “disproportionate.”
Steffen Hebestreit, the German government spokesman, added: “If you don’t fulfill the residency requirements, it doesn’t help that you work as a journalist.”
On Wednesday, Channel One, which is financed by the Kremlin, had opened its early morning news show with the accusation that it had been ordered to “close down” its Berlin bureau. The TV channel said the correspondent Ivan Blagoy and cameraman Dmitri Rodionov were told to leave by early December.
The Russian foreign ministry said that two German journalists — Frank Aischmann, a correspondent, and Sven Feller, a technician — who were working for Germany’s public broadcaster ARD in Russia would be kicked out of the country.
ARD, which has a major presence in Russia, will not be able to bring in replacements until “the German government creates conditions for the Russian journalists in Germany,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry, said in a televised briefing.
Two other Russian state-financed TV channels have been operating freely in Germany.
Germany has said there is a major disinformation campaign targeting its Russian-speaking citizens. The foreign ministry in a report this summer on Russia’s online Doppelgänger disinformation network accused the Kremlin of deliberately trying to manipulate public discourse and discredit Western foreign policy.
German officials had previously singled out Channel One and Mr. Blagoy for alleged bias. In 2016, German diplomats publicly voiced concerns about Channel One’s coverage of a fake story about a teenager of Russian descent getting raped in Germany.
As the United States and the European Union were rolling out sweeping sanctions against individuals and various sectors of the Russian economy early on in Russia’s war on Ukraine, several Western countries targeted RT, a state-owned media company which broadcasts in foreign languages for audiences abroad. The European Union suspended licenses for several Russian TV media platforms in an attempt to clamp down on the pro-Russian messages being broadcast to Russian speakers in their countries.
And because of the sanctions, Channel One has not been allowed to broadcast in the European Union since 2022.
The post Moscow Expels 2 German Journalists, Accusing Berlin of Closing Russian TV Bureau appeared first on New York Times.
