MOSCOW, Nov 30 - RIA Novosti. RT journalists were deprived of accreditation in the US Congress in connection with the registration of the television channel as a foreign agent, according to a statement by the Gallery of Radio and Television correspondents of the US legislature.
"The Executive Committee of the Correspondents Gallery of the Radio and TV Congress of the US used its powers ... to deny the RT TV accreditation by a unanimous vote on November 21, 2017 ... The decision was made in response to the registration of the RT service company T & R as a foreign agent," the organization said in a statement. It is specified that the deprivation of accreditation takes effect immediately.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice introduced RT America and the Sputnik-Reston Translator partner company to the list of foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Act of 1938, with many other foreign state media such as the British BBC, the Chinese CCTV, the French television channel France 24, the German radio station Deutsche Welle, are not registered as such.
Editor-in-chief of RT and Sputnik Margarita Simonyan stated that the TV channel chose between registration and criminal case, and in this connection congratulated "the American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it."
This step was a continuation of the policy of Washington's pressure on the Russian media. Also, the congress arranged a trial on the alleged "influence of RT on the presidential election".
In October, Twitter blocked advertising from the channels owned by RT and Sputnik. At the same time, Twitter, Facebook and Google in Congress admitted that they have no evidence of Moscow's interference in the elections in the United States.
In response to Washington's actions in Russia, a law was passed, according to which foreign media can be recognized as foreign agents if they are financed from abroad.
