Original TV text - "This service is currently not available." I merely used Paint to make the somewhat obvious addition.

Photo taken this morning while having breakfast. Sky, Freeview and Freesat removed RT from their platforms last night. Youtube had already banned all access to RT in the UK on 1 March.

That might make many people in the UK feel good, but they should consider the consequences. It provides an immediate excuse to Putin to clamp down on the BBC as well as other media outlets opposed to the Russian invasion, and it also a severe setback for freedom of speech here in the UK. As George Orwell wrote 'if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

The reasons given for such censorship assume that ordinary people are too stupid to try to check out facts for themselves, and such obvious censorship will only increase public scepticism about the 'truths' they hear from the mainstream media. We also have to accept that while some coverage by RT has been deplorable, it has also won numerous prestigious international awards for some of its reporting.

The TV channel has also provided one of the only opportunities for political dissidents like Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, leading BLM activists and others to reach out to an audience of millions - which is probably the main reason why it has been banned - and why in the UK - Sir Keir Starmer feared it even more than Boris Johnson, who initially argued that freedom of speech should prevail.

While RT also provides a platform for Russian propaganda, it should also be remembered that the BBC throughout its history, has also been used as a deliberate propaganda tool by the UK government as far back as its 1953 involvement in the toppling of Mossadegh - Iran's first democratically elected prime minister of Iran in a coup which restored a brutal and authoritarian absolute monarchy under Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, finally toppled in 1979. According to historian Mark Curtis -

"The signal for the coup scenario to begin had been arranged with the BBC; the latter agreed to begin its Persian language news broadcast not with the usual “it is now midnight in London”, but instead with “it is now exactly midnight”.

www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/05/08/bbc-und...

I wish, but I hope for months on end at least.

Green Ed’s Taxes are Officially Under Review #Labour fail #bbcnews #RTNews #skynews #ITVNews #Energy #bbcqt #bbcdp ow.ly/pIWDm The Prime Minister's official spokesperson has confirmed this morning that green subsidies on energy bills are now under review. Just yesterday...