Germany Bans Media Freedom, Russia Retaliates

by Stephen Lendman

Speech, media and academic freedoms are fundamental to free and open societies.

Without them all other rights are threatened.

Throughout the US/West, views that conflict with the fabricated official narrative are increasingly censored.

These and other fundamental rights are fast eroding.

When compromised, free and open societies no longer exist.

Where hegemon USA goes, subservient Western states follow time and again.

The scourge of censorship is increasingly the new abnormal throughout the US and West.

What's happening risks banning it altogether ahead.

In Mid-December German media regular MABB launched a rigged investigation of RT DE news with malice aforethought.

On Wednesday, RT in Germany on air was banned — on the phony pretext of neither requesting or receiving authorization to operate in the country.

The action was a flagrant assault of media freedom — perhaps with intent to ban it altogether by the Scholz regime.

RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan explained that the news operation "produces several programs for the RT DE TV channel."

It broadcasts "from Moscow and has full broadcast rights in Germany and 32 other European countries," adding: 

"We will not stop broadcasting."

Last December, RT launched its on air operations to a German audience.

In response, it was accused of targeting Germans with manipulated facts — notably news and views that differ from the state-approved narrative.

It's maliciously Russophobic in similar fashion to US MSM fake news about Russia.

Regular followers of my writing may recall my critique of RT broadcasts in the US.

It differs too often from valued online print content.

I explained my criticism of its broadcasts in detail, including by blacklisting notable truth-telling guests that long ago were regulars on air.

That said, compromising free expression in all forms is the hallmark of totalitarian rule — on a slippery slope toward full-blown tyranny if unchecked.

In response to Berlin's silencing of RT DE on air, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the following:

"Russian retaliatory measures…will be announced" on Thursday.

Ahead of the announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed Germany's infringement of Russian free expression in the country.

In response to the unacceptable action by the Olaf Scholz regime, Moscow responded by ordering closure of Germany's Deutsche Welle (DW) television and radio in the Russian Federation, adding:

The accreditation of its staff is null and void.

German officials involved in prohibiting RT DE's on air operations will be barred from entering Russia.

Ahead of the move days earlier, Sergey Lavrov urged Scholz regime officials to take no measures "that will discriminate against the RT DE channel."

His good faith request fell on deaf ears in Berlin — in cahoots with longstanding US war on Russia by other means.

Ignoring Berlin's hostile action against RT DE, DW's CEO Peter Limbourg vowed "legal action to challenge (Moscow's) announced measures."

German Commissioner for Culture and Media Claudia Roth reinvented reality.

She falsely called Russia's justifiable retaliation "absolutely unacceptable (sic)" — instead of directing her ire where it belongs.

The only language that hegemon USA and its Western vassal states understand is toughness.

Shutting down DW in response to Berlin's silencing of RT DE on air got the Scholz regime's attention.

If further hostile actions against Russia are implemented by Germany and/or other Western regimes, the Kremlin's only recourse is to respond in kind.

Anything less shows weakness and vulnerability to no end of assaults on Russia's legitimate rights.

By demanding security guarantees from hegemon US-dominated NATO, Russia drew a line in the sand.

The same goes for retaliating in kind against Berlin's assault on media freedom by shutting down RT DE's on air news channel.

Dealing with the US-dominated West in language its ruling regimes understand is the only way to give them pause about continued war on Russia by other means. 

Will it shift the dynamic in a positive direction?

Likely not over the short-or even longer-term.

At the same time, what can't go on forever, won't.

Russia is a prominent world power, a good neighbor, a preeminent proponent of peace, stability and compliance with the rule of law.

Like all nations, it deserves respect from others, hostility by no one against its fundamental rights.

It's clear that the only way to get the attention of US-dominated Western regimes is by no longer dealing with its ruling regimes passively.

It's by refusing to tolerate nothing less than what's affirmed by international law.

It's by responding in kind to hostile actions against its fundamental rights.

It's by shifting from passivity to toughness — short of war that neither side can win.

That if full-blown, would assure mutually assured destruction (MAD) — why it's crucial to avoid.