UK regulator finds Russian channel RT broke impartiality rules

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's media regulator, Ofcom, said Russian news channel RT had failed to preserve due impartiality in relation to its coverage of the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

"Ofcom considers that these breaches were serious and repeated, and we are minded to consider them for the imposition of a statutory sanction," the regulator - which suspended RT's licence in March - said.

Ofcom had cited RT's links to the Kremlin when it cancelled its licence to broadcast in the UK in March, saying that RT had received funding from the Russian state.

The watchdog had launched 29 investigations into RT after complaints from viewers and its own monitoring of the channel. The breaches related to its coverage of the conflict in late February and early March.

In response to the findings, RT said: The logic of these decisions mirrors the one guiding their delivery many months after Ofcom's revocation of RT's license: it is a trial after a conviction"

(Reporting by Muvija MEditing by William Schomberg and Kate Holton)