BBC says it complies with Russian regulations after new checks

Special correspondent(wp/Reuters):

The BBC said on Friday it worked in full compliance with Russia’s laws and regulations to deliver independent news after the country’s media regulator said it would carry out checks on the British broadcaster in an escalation of tensions.

Russia’s media regulator said it would carry out checks to determine if the BBC World News channel and BBC internet sites complied with Russian law, a move it described as a response to British pressure on a Russian TV channel.

“As everywhere else in the world, the BBC works in Russia in full compliance with the country’s laws and regulations to deliver independent news and information to its audiences,” said a spokeswoman for the British publicly owned broadcaster.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian regulator, was responding to Britain’s media regulator Ofcom which said on Thursday that Russian broadcaster RT had broken impartiality rules in news and current affairs programmes, including coverage of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.