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China’s broadcasting regulator says it has taken the BBC World News off the air for what it called “serious content violations.”
 
The decision comes one week after Britain’s broadcasting regulator, the Office of Communications, revoked the license of the state-owned China Global Television Network.  The office said the Chinese Communist Party oversees the network’s editorial policy, a violation of a British law forbidding political bodies from controlling broadcast license holders
 
On Thursday, the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA)  said the BBC “was found to have seriously violated regulations on radio and television management” in its China-related reports, and “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.”
 
From her Twitter feed, Australia-based BBC World News Presenter Yalda Hakim said that according to NRTA, the BBC was responsible for a “slew of falsified reporting” on issues including the treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority in the western Xinjiang region and China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
In a statement posted on Twitter, the BBC said it is “disappointed” by China’s actions.
  
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A storied Russian liberal politician has sparked an outbreak of infighting among the country’s opposition groups after mounting a scathing attack on Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, arguing the path he would take the country down wouldn’t lead to a life free of repression.
 
“Everyone must decide whether to support Navalny or not,” Grigory Yavlinsky wrote this week. “But you need to understand. A democratic Russia, respect for people, and a life without fear and repression are incompatible with Navalny’s policies,” he added.
 
Yavlinsky, who ran twice for the Russia’s presidency, in 1996 against Boris Yeltsin and in 2000 against Vladimir Putin, founded the Yabloko party, which favors free-market economics and social liberalism. He’s been critical of Navalny in the past and this week repeated his accusation that Navalny, Russia’s most high-profile opposition politician, is xenophobic and an authoritarian nationalist.
 
The attack by Yavlinsky has split the party he founded and triggered broader opposition infighting. It comes amid signs the recent protests against the Kremlin, and demands for Navalny to be freed from jail, are not resonating with most Russians, and that the paramilitary style crackdown on the dissenters is deterring others from considering protesting or enlisting in any future political action.
 
A poll conducted by the independent Levada Center carried out between January 29 and February 2 suggests there is little public appetite for agitation. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning, which he blames on the Kremlin and was arrested last month in Moscow on his return following life-saving treatment in Germany.  
 
In the past two weeks, pro-Navalny supporters were on the streets in more than a hundred cities across Russia’s 11 time zones, with the largest protests mounted in the Russian capital and St. Petersburg. More than 11,000 people have been arrested at rallies opposing the jailing of Navalny, who started out as a blogger and became known as an anti-corruption campaigner.FILE – Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky participates in a march in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, in central Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24, 2019.The poll found that just 15% of Russians would be prepared to participate in future pro-Navalny protests, four percent less than the pollster found in November 2020. The percentage rose to 17% when asked if they would join rallies to protest economic conditions. Those figures represent Russians’ lowest willingness to protest since March 2018, according to the pollster.
 
The pollster also found that only 22% viewed the recent political protests positively. Younger respondents, who tend to get their news from the Internet and non-government media sources, viewed the protests slightly more favorably than older Russians, who generally receive their news and views from government-owned or controlled channels.  
 
Government-sponsored channels have mounted unrelenting scorching attacks on Navalny and his allies, accusing them of being agents of foreign powers.
 
Among all respondents, two out of five said they view the protesters negatively. Another 37% expressed indifference to the political protests. Nonetheless, Russians do expect more political agitation in the future with 45% of people expecting more trouble, a jump from 23% last November, the highest it has been since 1998.
 
The poll findings are dismaying for Navalny supporters, who are in the process of taking stock and reorganizing to adjust for the high number of dedicated activists currently in detention. Navalny’s team last week said it intends to shift tactics and mount neighborhood flash mobs this Sunday instead of urging large numbers of supporters to take to the streets, risking more detentions and giving the security services an easy target to hit.  
 
Neighborhood flash mobs is a tactic pro-democracy activists have been using in recent weeks in neighboring Belarus.  
 
Navalny’s key aides are urging Russians to gather near their homes on February 14, Valentine’s Day, to shine torches and light candles in heart shapes. Navalny made multiple heart gestures to his wife Yulia in the courtroom where he was sentenced to two years and eight months on February 2.FILE – A still image taken from video footage shows Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny making a hand gesture forming a heart during the announcement of his court verdict in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 2, 2021.He was convicted of violating the terms of his parole from a 2014 sentence for fraud in a case his supporters, international rights groups and Western governments say is spurious and politically motivated.  
 
Opposition infighting is par for the course. President Vladimir Putin’s foes are drawn from across the political spectrum, from right-wing ultra-nationalists to old-school Communists, and with a variety of liberal groups in the middle. In 2016, an effort to stitch together a broad alliance of opposition groups, called the Democratic Coalition, was short-lived.  
 
It fell apart when the leaders, who were meant to be working together to try to gain political influence, resumed their competition and tried to elbow each other out of the way.  
 
The Kremlin gave it the coup de grace when it leaked to the government-sponsored NTV channel a video of former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a key liberal opposition politician, and one of the founders of the Democratic Coalition, in which he was heard disparaging his political partners.  
 
Different coalition configurations were tried before and have been since, too, but keeping opposition groups marching, agitating and campaigning as one also has always been difficult and temporary. Yavlinsky’s public criticism of Navalny this week has exposed once again the splits and political animosities.
 
Navalny’s allies have urged Yabloko to expel Yavlinsky, and opposition social media forums have seen acrimonious exchanges, raising the prospect that opposition groups once again will end up squabbling and taking off in disparate directions in the run-up campaign to parliamentary elections in September.  
 
Navalny was himself a member of Yabloko, but he was expelled in 2007 over what other members saw as unacceptable “nationalist” views. In the past, the Kremlin critic has participated in ultranationalist rallies and has been critical of migrants, using language his critics say make him unsuitable to be the figurehead of the opposition to Putin.  
 
Navalny denies he is a xenophobe, and says he was expelled from Yabloko because he made little secret he wanted to replace Yavlinsky.
 
But some Yabloko leaders are infuriated with Yavlinsky’s attack, which they say is ill-timed and will put off voters. Other opposition figures say Yavlinsky shouldn’t criticize someone now in jail as a political prisoner and unable to defend himself.
 
Last week, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oil tycoon who emerged as a prominent critic of Putin after a 10-year spell in a Russian jail, said he disagrees with Navalny on some issues, “But when a person becomes a political prisoner he must be supported.” 
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Many private media outlets went off the air in Poland on Wednesday, running slogans like “This used to be your favorite program,” in protest against a proposed media advertising tax they say threatens media independence and diversity.
 
The blackout came a day after many publishing groups objected to the planned tax in an open letter to authorities and political leaders.
 
The government says the tax will help raise funds for healthcare and culture, both hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
 
“Dear user! We are taking a step today that we never wanted to take because it goes against all of our journalistic values. For 24 hours all Ringier Axel Springer Polska services will disappear,” web portal Onet wrote on its home page.
 
Web portal Interia, private broadcasters Polsat and TVN and private radio station Radio Zet also stopped coverage.
 
Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party has promoted patriotism and conservative values since it came to power in 2015, opposing what it calls imported liberalism and multiculturalism.
 
PiS lawmakers have said foreign media companies have too much influence in Poland. Critics of the government say it wants to increase state control.
 
The protesting companies say the tax will create further inequalities between public and private outlets, adding that it would be another hit to independence.
 
Government spokesman Piotr Muller told public broadcaster TVP, which did not go off air, that the tax had already been implemented in a number of EU countries and was still in the consultation phase.
 
The tax could amount to anywhere between 2% and 15% of advertising income, depending on the size of the company, Muller added. 
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The suspension of the license of Hungary’s last independent news radio station has drawn international condemnation, with the European Union and media watchdogs calling the move a further attack on democracy in the EU member state. “We have expressed our concerns about media freedom and pluralism” in Hungary, which is already under investigation for flouting the rule of law, European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said on February 10, a day after Klubradio lost an appeal to keep its license. The case of the radio station “only aggravates these concerns,” Wigand added. Klubradio broadcasts mainly in Budapest. Its news and talk content is often critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. Employees of the opposition radio-station Klubradio work at its headquarters in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 9, 2021.In September 2020, Hungary’s National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) refused to extend Klubradio’s seven-year operating license, which expires on February 14, saying the station “repeatedly infringed” on the compulsory registration law by twice submitting documents late. Such violations usually incur fines and the NMHH’s announcement raised new concerns about political pressure from the government on the media in Hungary. “Another silenced voice in Hungary. Another sad day for media freedom,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic tweeted.Today’s ruling of the Budapest Court seals the fate of Andras Arato, president of Klubradio, listens as Judge Regina Antal delivers the verdict on the fate of the broadcaster whose license was not automatically renewed by the media authority last year in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 9, 2021.Calling the court decision “shameful and cowardly,” Klubradio President Andras Arato said the radio station now plans to appeal the ruling to Hungary’s Supreme Court. The EU’s Wigand told a news briefing on February 10 that the European Commission was “in contact with the Hungarian authorities to ensure that Klubradio can continue to operate legally,” adding that it was checking whether the decision complied with EU law and would “not hesitate to take action if possible and necessary.” In a statement, Pavol Szalai, the head of RSF’s European Union and Balkans desk, called on the European Commission to “delay no more in investigating [NMHH’s] independence under the revised European directive on broadcast media, and in investigating the other curbs on press freedom, such as state aid to pro-government media.” Hungary is under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and risks losing access to tens of billions of euros in funds from the bloc. The EU member state is ranked 89th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Only Bulgaria, at 111th, is ranked lower among the EU’s 27 member states.   
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday defended her decision to extend the nation’s COVID-19 lockdown, saying the variant strains of the virus pose a threat and she does not want to make the mistakes that led to a second surge last year.
Following a meeting Wednesday with Germany’s 16 state governors, Merkel announced they agreed to extend the current COVID-19 lockdown – due to expire Sunday – to March 7.
Speaking to the Bundestag – the lower house of the German parliament – Merkel said they did not act fast enough in 2020 to prevent a second surge in infections late in the year, and as health officials now warn about the spread of more virulent variant COVID-19 strains in the country, she said they need to learn from their mistakes.
The number of new daily infections has dropped in Germany since the current lockdown began in late November, prompting calls for an easing of restrictions. Some schools and businesses such as hair salons will be allowed to open sooner, with strict hygiene restrictions.  
But Merkel argued the nation is in a battle with the virus, and their opponent does not pay attention to dates, it pays attention to infection rates. She said the government is basing the next step in lifting restrictions on reaching an infection rate of 35 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people over a seven-day period.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported, as of Wednesday, the nation had an infection rate of 68 per 100,000 for the previous seven days.  
The institute also reported, as of Thursday, the nation added 10,237 new cases and 666 deaths in the past day, taking the total case count since the start of the coronavirus outbreak to 2.31 million and the death toll to 63,635.
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European Union officials are forecasting an economic rebound within the bloc later, by mid-year, as long as there is progress in combatting the coronavirus pandemic.
 
In a quarterly report released Thursday, the EU expected growth to reach 3.7% this year and slightly better next year.
 
It cited economic slowdowns that began at the end of 2020 as countries reimposed lockdowns amid a new wave of COVID-19 infections.
 
“Economic growth is set to resume in the spring and gather momentum in the summer as vaccination programs progress and containment measures gradually ease,” the report said.
 
It noted a degree of uncertainty in the forecast, with persistent lockdowns or high unemployment carrying the potential to drag down growth, but also the potential for more rapid vaccinations that could prompt member economies to open up more quickly.
 
The report said the past few months have been “challenging,” but that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.”
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The European Union Commission’s president defended the bloc’s coronavirus vaccination strategy Wednesday amid growing criticism of delays in procurement and delivery. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the bloc is facing crises on multiple fronts.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell   
 
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The Russian government has levied a fine against the U.S. government-sponsored media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for violating the country’s “foreign agent” law. The $150,000 fine was assessed by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulatory body.  Russia first designated RFE/RL, a sister organization of the Voice of America (VOA), a foreign agent in 2017, a step some say made its work in Russia more difficult. According to the Reuters news agency, Russia has fined the outlet several times in recent weeks. The foreign agent law gives a wide berth for the Russian government to erect bureaucratic hurdles to any nongovernmental group that receives foreign funding, Reuters reported. RFE/RL says it plans to appeal the latest fine. “We have court hearings about three times a week, and we get fined at each one,” Andrei Shary, head of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, said in an interview with the RIA news agency. “The company considers this to be unfair. Every court decision will be appealed.”
“The Kremlin’s latest move is clearly intended to limit USAGM’s ability to operate and report independently and objectively within Russia. It is unacceptable,” USAGM acting CEO Kelu Chao told VOA.  FILE – Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.Congressman Michael McCaul expressed support for RFE/RL. “We’re seeing the Putin regime cracking down on free speech and on the ability of Radio Free Europe and Voice of America to operate out there in Moscow,” he told VOA’s Russian Service. “I think you’re going to see a very strong movement by the United States Congress, but I would urge that the [U.S.] president talk directly to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about this with condemnation about the ability to have free speech in his own country and to get the truth out. And that’s what Voice of America and Radio Free Europe do,” he added.VOA Russian Service’s Danila Galperovich contributed to this report.
 
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Lithuania has rejected orders issued Wednesday from a Moscow court calling for the arrest of Leonid Volkov, an exiled ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The court orders, sent via Interpol, charge Volkov with encouraging minors to participate in unauthorized rallies, which potentially carries jail term of up to three years in Russia.“Using international tools for politically motivated prosecution is a wrong practice,” said Lithuanian interior minister Agne Bilotaite, referring to Interpol, the government-funded international police network that coordinates cross-border police operations across 194 member states.Putin, Kremlin Critic Navalny Set Battle Plans for Next Phase in Struggle for MasteryRussian opposition leaders expect Kremlin crackdown to intensify but are preparing for a long-haul stand-off with Putin The Volkov warrant “raises serious doubts about Russia‘s membership in these organizations,” Bilotaite added.The Russian court, which said Volkov will be held in Russia for two months if and when he is extradited, said the warrant was issued under the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization of former Soviet republics to which Lithuania does not belong.The arrest warrant comes after the rise of demonstrations demanding the release of Russian opposition leader Navalny, who has been jailed since January 17.In a separate development on Wednesday, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who was recently detained for taking part in unsanctioned rallies in support of her jailed husband, left Russia for Germany according to a source quoted by Interfax.Volkov, a strategist who manages Navalny’s regional headquarters, fled Russia in 2019 when authorities opened a criminal probe of suspected money laundering by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. Navalny’s group has repeatedly called that criminal probe, among the latest of many, politically motivated.From his base in Lithuania, Volkov has been organizing protests demanding the release of Navalny, with the most recent one being planned for this Sunday.
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European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen Wednesday acknowledged Europe was late approving and rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, saying they were overconfident vaccines could be delivered on time.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Von der Leyen, however, defended the decision to have the commission – the European Union’s executive branch – oversee vaccine orders and for all 27 EU members to roll out vaccines at the same time, saying had the bloc’s biggest states acted unilaterally, “it would have been the end of our community.”
She also defended not cutting corners on safety when it came to approval of vaccines and waiting for an additional three or four weeks for approval from the EU drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency. But Von der Leyen also said there were lessons to be learned from the process.
Von der Leyen said while they were focused primarily on the quick development of a vaccine, the EU underestimated the difficulties in producing high volumes quickly. She said, “In some ways, science overtook industry.”
She said they now fully understand the difficulties of mass production and have invested billions in improving capacity. She urged member states to plan their rollouts accordingly.
The European Commission chief also expressed regret about an initial plan to restrict exports to British-ruled Northern Ireland, which would have set up a hard border between it and EU member Republic of Ireland, reigniting tensions in that region.
She said, “Mistakes were made in the process leading up to the decision and I deeply regret that. But in the end, we got it right. And I can reassure you that my commission will do its utmost to protect the peace of Northern Ireland.
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