UK bank freezes Russian broadcaster RT’s accounts

UK bank Natwest has frozen the accounts of the Russian state-backed news channel RT (formerly Russia Today).

Editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted: “They’ve closed our accounts in Britain. All our accounts. ‘The decision is not subject to review.’ Praise be to freedom of speech!”

According to a statement by RT, the bank omitted to give a reason for its decision and simply stated that the entire Royal Bank of Scotland Group, of which NatWest forms part, refused to provide banking services to the broadcaster.

In October 2014 RT launched a dedicated UK channel, RT UK. RT has previously been sanctioned by the UK’s broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, for biased reporting.

Source: BBC